Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.arcliive.org/details/areyougoingtocolOOsclimricli 


•    •    • 


11  ^.fs 


ARE  YOU  GOING   TO 
COLLEGE? 


LETTERS  FROM  A  GRADUATE 
TO  A  FRESHMAN 


BY 

WILUAM  C.  SCHMEISSER 


BALTIMORE 

EDWARD  H.  CURLANDER 

1913 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
WILLIAM  C  SCHMEISSER. 


ToAU 

Teachers  and  Instructors  for  their 
patience  yt)ith  US 

This  book  is  dedicated 


281306 


3mt  a  Wtiti 

V/OU  have  this  little  volume  before  you  as 
a  result  of  the  knocks  received  by  the 
author  while  he  was  qualifying  to  be  stamped 
as  a  college  man.  The  incidents  as  here  set 
down  have  been  favorably  received  in  the  form 
of  informal  talks  to  young  men.  Therefore 
these  letters  may  be  of  interest  to  freshmen 
and  also  give  them  a  lift  on  their  way. 

Further,  father,  mother  and  sister  may  de- 
sire to  see  a  thing  or  two  about  college  besides 
the  commencement  exercises.  They  are  wel- 
come as  is  the  graduate  who  wishes  to  see 
how  college  of  today  compares  with  that  of 

yesterday. 

W.  C.  S. 


(UnnttntB. 


9\XBtfiattft 13 

College  a  Little  World  in  Itself. 

Suggestions  Materalistic  not  Idealistic. 

Cut  the  Short  Pants. 

College  Man  and  Non-College  Man, 

Which  College  shall  I  Attend? 

Athletic  Scholarship. 

Father's  Ability  to  Foot  Bills. 

Athletic  Prominence  of  a  College, 

The   Modern  Athletic  Machine  or  Business. 

9K0tib  Urtt^r 42 

Dormitories  vs.  Fraternity  Houses. 
Fraternities  in  General. 
Prep-school  Man  and  Fraternities. 
"Sophs  is  Sophs." 

Sriftrti  llrttwr 60 

Conduct  as  a  Fraternity  Man. 

A  few  "Do's"  And  a  "Don't." 

College  Hazing. 

Class  Rushes  or  Fights. 

The  Female  Seminary  as  a  Neighbor. 

Coeducation. 

The  College  Widow. 


ITimrtli  Ufttrr 82 

Shall  I  Take  Part  in  Athletics? 
Athletics  and  the  Nation. 
The  Best  Sport  to  Tackle. 
Medical  Examination  to  Qualify. 
Getting  a  Fair  Show  for  the  Team. 
The  Prep-School  Stars. 
"Athletic  Crazy." 
The  Pot-Hunter. 

jrtftljfcttrr 104 

Studies  and  Athletics. 

Play  a  Clean  Game. 

Be  "Jonny-on-the-Spot." 

Proper  Equipment. 

The  Athletic  Grafter. 

Make  Every  Play  Sure. 

"Never  Quit." 

A  Good  Winner  and  a  Good  Loser. 

Is  the  Other  Fellow  Always  the  "Mucker"? 

College  Spirit. 

^txtli  C^ttrr  .        .        .  .        .127 

Scholastic  Standard  to  Qualify  for  a  Team. 

How     "To  Beat"  The  Instructor. 

Getting  Ready  for  Examinations. 

Why  Head  The  Class? 

The  Value  of  a  Tutor. 

Relation  Between  Student  and   Instructor. 


^fnttttit  HbUbv 146 

College  Politics. 

Social  Functions  At  College. 

lEiglytlj  U^ttor 163 

Captain   Of  the   Freshman   Eleven. 

How  to  Handle  a  Team  as  Captain  or  Coach. 

The  Physical  Condition  Of  a  Team. 


May  I2TH. 

'■fiEAR  DICK: — It  is  needless  to  say  that 
Irl  I  was  surprised  to  receive  yours  of  the 
second  instant,  and  from  it  to  learn 
that  you  expect  to  go  to  college  next  fall.  My, 
how  the  years  do  roll  around!  It  seems  to 
me  but  yesterday,  when  I  last  saw  you  in  short 
trousers.  College!  yes,  that  was  the  keynote 
of  your  letter,  and  to  think  that  it  is  already 
a  little  over  eleven  years  since  I  was  a  fresh- 
man at  old  Moorehead. 

So  your  father  told  you  to  write  to  me  to 
find  out  "what's  what  at  college?"  Just  like 
your  Dad;  he  is  a  business  man  through  and 
through ;  he  believes  in  cold  figures  and  facts. 
He  told  you  that  he  never  went  to  college, 
and,  therefore,  does  not  know  the  tricks  of 
the  trade.  True  to  his  business  training, — he 
never  takes  on  a  new  proposition  without  some 

[13] 


Are    Ybd   Going   to   College 

preliminary  investigation.  A  wise  precaution. 
The  more  I  allow  that  letter  of  yours  to  filter 
through  my  brain,  the  more  it  takes  me  back 
to  the  time  when  I  was  preparing  for  college. 
Like  yourself,  I  also  was  the  first  boy  in  a 
commercial  family  to  go  to  college,  and  knew 
nothing  about  college  life, — its  uses  and  tradi- 
tions. I  had  to  feel  my  way  along,  and  never 
was  smart  enough  to  get  a  few  hints  from  a 
man  who  had  been  through  the  mill.  My,  I 
often  think  how  easy  it  would  have  been  for 
me  to  have  made  a  failure  of  my  college 
course. 

From  the  questions  you  fire  at  me,  you 
certainly  want  a  thorough  consideration  of  the 
college  situation,  and  you  bet  that  the  son  of 
my  friend  Thomas  Dawson  will  get  the  best 
I  have  on  tap.  So  your  father  thinks  that  I 
have  kept  about  as  close  in  touch  with  college 
and  its  tricks,  as  anybody  he  knows.  No 
doubt  I  know  pretty  well  what  the  boys  are 
doing,  but  that  is  not  difficult  when  you  have 

[14] 


First  Letter 


several  younger  brothers,  and  the  youngest  is 
still  in  college. 

To  tell  you  the  truth,  Dick,  first  after  I  had 
graduated  and  taken  a  position  in  the  business 
world,  I  thought  that  it  was  "up  to  me"  to 
leave  childish  things  behind,  and  bury  myself 
with  my  job.  But  somehow,  I  found  myself 
sneaking  around  to  the  campus  on  Saturday 
afternoons  after  working  hours,  and  on  other 
days  attending  little  college  parties  at  night. 
After  several  years  had  passed  in  this  way, 
I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  was  deriving 
a  distinct  benefit  from  playing  with  the  boys, 
and  helping  them  at  their  college  work  by 
handing  out  a  few  practical  hints  from  time 
to  time. 

In  this  way  I  have  found  out  that  the  col- 
lege course  of  four  years,  as  it  is  ordinarily 
given  in  the  modern  institution  of  learning, 
may  be  compared  to  a  little  world  all  in  itself. 
The  young  man  makes  a  beginning  in  his 
freshman  class,  and  ends  up  with  his  senior 

[15] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

year, — only  to  be  turned  out  into  the  cold 
world  of  business,  or  professional  life,  to  be- 
gin all  over  again.  My  contention  is,  that  if 
you  learn  to  succeed  in  your  college  life,  you 
will  also  succeed  by  applying  the  same  prin- 
ciples in  the  world  after  graduation;  that  is, 
in  the  cold  struggle  for  an  existence.  The 
college  course,  if  made  use  of  in  the  proper 
way,  is  a  training  school  which  will  fit  you  to 
work  more  efficiently  in  your  real  career. 

My  "Dos"  and  "Donts,"  I  wish  you  to 
understand,  Dick,  are  not  to  supplant,  but  to 
supplement  the  work  of  the  professor  or  in- 
structor. They  do  the  real  hard  work,  by 
banging  book  knowledge  into  the  boys.  I  shall 
only  suggest  a  veneering,  which,  if  the  timber 
is  of  the  proper  quality,  will  bring  out  the 
characteristic  effects  which  go  to  make  up  a 
sound  and  progressive  manhood.  Experience 
and  observation  have  shown  that  this  finish 
cannot  be  acquired  by  study  within  the  four 
walls  of  a  class-room  alone. 
[16] 


First  Letter 


When  I  begin  my  hints,  young  man,  please 
wait  until  I  finish  before  you  cry  out  "Bosh» 
father  and  mother  have  told  me  that  already," 
— or  whisper  "cut  out  that  preaching."  A 
little  patience  will  show  you  that  these  few 
suggestions  are  given  you  purely  from  a  ma- 
terialistic point  of  view.  I  shall  not  tell  you, 
it  is  better  to  do  this  or  not  to  do  that,  but 
I  shall  try  to  reveal  to  you  why  it  is  advisable 
to  follow  these  hints.  To  be  brief,  I  shall 
show  what  material  benefit  you  can,  and  will 
derive  therefrom.  I  do  not  flatter  myself  that 
the  modern  college  man,  in  general,  can  be 
impressed  by  idealistic  object  lessons,  but 
rather  I  am  convinced  that  he  is  a  materialistic 
being,  pure  and  simple.  He  is  not  satisfied 
with  a  general  statement  as  to  what  ought  to 
be,  he  wants  to  be  shown  how  much  it  will 
benefit  him,  before  he  is  ready  to  adopt  a 
particular  code  or  procedure.  A  suggestion 
would  probably  strike  home  more  speedily  if 
[17] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

we  had  time  to  figure  out  the  value  of  its 
acceptance  in  dollars  and  cents. 

As  I  figure  it,  Dick,  you  will  be  a  little  over 
eighteen  when  you  enter  college, — a  very  good 
age.  The  boys,  as  a  general  thing,  enter 
ranging  in  ages,  anywhere  from  sixteen  to 
twenty-one  years,  and  I  should  say  that  the 
average  age  is  about  nineteen.  It  is  not  de- 
sirable for  a  boy  to  start  in  on  his  college 
course  too  young,  as  he  is  not  mature  enouga 
to  get  the  full  benefit  thereof.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  Fate  sends  a  man  to  college  aged 
much  above  the  average,  he  may  not  be  able 
to  get  in  the  proper  swim  with  the  boys.  He 
has  outgrown  the  turbulent  spirits  of  youth 
and  looks  on  life  with  more  seriousness. 

Now  that  you  qualify  as  to  age,  here  goes 
for  a  few  lines  that  may  give  mother  a  bump, 
if  she  has  never  thought  about  the  subject- 
matter  of  my  remarks  before.  My  young 
man,  you  are  about  to  take  a  step,  the  im- 
portance of  which  the  average  youngster  and 
[18] 


First  Letter 


his  parents  often  do  not  realize.  The  fact  is 
that  you  are  going  to  take  a  step  into  deeper 
water  than  that  which  floats  around  in  close 
proximity  to  the  family  bath-tub;  you  are 
going  to  be  brought  into  contact  with  Life. 
You  will  be  compelled  to  shift  for  yourself 
in  many  ways,  at  college.  All  through  your 
primary  and  grammar  school  days,  you  have 
been  under  the  watchful  eye  of  pater  and 
mater.  Now,  if  you  leave  your  home  town 
you  will  not  see  your  parents  for  weeks  at  a 
time,  and  even  should  you  decide  to  take  the 
undergraduate  course  in  the  college  in  your 
own  town  (and  by  the  way,  it  is  of  the  highest 
standard),  you  will  be  very  much  less  under 
the  parental  roof.  On  being  turned  loose  into 
college,  you  have  a  chance  to  learn  to  be  inde- 
pendent, but  at  the  same  time,  it  is  up  to  you 
to  paddle  your  own  canoe. 

Just  a  minute,  while  I  give  you  a  picture  of 
what  the  average  young  man  is  when  he 
reaches  college.     I  will  let  you  give  him  his 

[19] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

physical  proportions,  but  remember  that  he 
appears  not  fully  developed.  As  for  his  dress, 
he  may  be  attired  in  almost  anything  that 
looks  like  a  coat,  vest  and  trousers.  Yes, 
those  trousers!  For  heaven's  sake,  Dick, 
never  let  any  of  your  friends  go  to  college 
rigged  up  in  short  pants.  If  they  can't  get 
long  trousers  to  fit  them,  let  them  wait  until 
they  grow  into  them,  but  do  not  let  them  take 
a  chance  at  the  campus  in  such  a  youthful 
make-up.  Year  after  next,  when  you  are 
leaning  against  one  of  those  trees  which  have 
been  planted  by  the  class  of  '56,  and  are  se- 
renely and  peacefully  sizing  up  the  freshies 
as  they  march  to  the  registrar's  office,  you  will 
appreciate  my  timely  warning.  Ten  to  one, 
you  will  hear  something  like  this,  as  Bill 
Jones  spies  a  youngster  in  short  pants :  "Say, 
Bob,  see  who  we  have  here?  By  gad,  they 
will  send  them  up  with  milk  bottles  before 
long;  it's  a  fine  chance  we'll  have  to  turn  out 
a  winning  foot  ball  team  this  year!"  (Re- 
[20] 


First  Letter 


sponse  from  Bob,  a  senior)  "Ain't  it  so, 
Mabel?  You  should  have  seen  our  freshman 
class."  (Here  follows  a  long  dissertation  on 
said  wonderful  class). 

So  arrives  the  freshman,  equipped  with 
clothes  to  wear  and  further  burdened  with 
the  best  wishes  and  the  warnings  of  his  par- 
ents to  choose  only  good  company.  To  this 
may  be  added  a  certain  amount  of  coin,  and  a 
limited  privilege  to  call  for  more.  He  comes 
into  strange  surroundings,  having  left  his 
circle  of  acquaintances,  a  coterie  about  which 
mother  and  father  have  been  fairly-well  in- 
formed,— to  enter  into  a  new  world.  It  is 
this  fact  of  leaving  old  friends  of  childhood 
behind  and  breaking  into  a  new  field,  only 
to  leave  it  behind  again  on  graduation,  which 
has  at  times,  inspired  the  discussion  among 
college  men,  whether  it  is  not  more  desirable 
to  attend  college  in  your  own  town  where  you 
can  always  have  your  college  friends,  or  at 
least  the  majority  of  them  with  you  after  you 
[21] 


Are   You   Going   to   College 

graduate.  Taking  everything  into  considera- 
tion, I  guess  it's  a  toss-up,  as  there  are  only 
comparatively  few  men  whose  life-work  al- 
lows them  to  settle  permanently  in  one  place. 
Those  who  follow  certain  occupations  are 
bound  to  travel  from  place  to  place,  and  must 
learn  to  make  new  friends  easily. 

Since  you  have  made  up  your  mind  to  go 
to  college,  I  shall  not  take  the  time  to  discuss 
the  advisability  of  going  to  college.  The  ad- 
vantages or  disadvantages  of  a  college  educa- 
tion in  its  broad  and  general  sense,  can  often 
enough  be  found  treated  in  the  current  maga- 
zines. The  net  result  of  all  arguments,  pro 
and  con,  is  that  its  utility  must  be  determined 
by  the  circumstances  of  each  particular  case. 
What  may  be  just  the  thing  for  Jack  may  be 
poison  for  Jill.  There  is  one  fact  that  neither 
you  or  any  other  young  man,  about  to  go  to 
college,  can  get  away  from, — so  you  might 
as  well  put  it  in  your  pipe  and  smoke  it.  This 
is,  that  after  you  graduate,  you  miist  be  pre- 
[22] 


First  Letter 


pared  to  begin  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  of 
whatever  occupation  you  may  pick  out  to 
follow  as  your  life's  work.  Especially  is  this 
true  of  the  man  who  decides  to  adopt  a  com- 
mercial career.  You  are  better  equipped  in 
an  all  around  way  to  take  up  your  work  than 
the  average  man — you  ought  to  know  from 
experience  at  college,  how  to  do  things  in- 
telligently, but  you  cannot  expect  to  know  the 
fundamental  tricks  of  a  particular  trade,  when 
you  are  just  beginning.  It  often  is  the  lot  of 
a  graduate  to  start  in  on  the  same  basis  with 
a  man  who  has  been  compelled  to  make  a 
living  right  after  leaving  the  grammar  school. 
In  fact,  in  many  instances  you  will  be  in- 
structed to  take  orders  from  a  boy  who  is 
younger  by  several  years  than  you  are.  He 
may  not,  by  any  means,  have  the  general 
mental  and  physical  equipment  that  you  have 
— ^but  he  will  know  more  about  a  particular 
business  than  you  do.  Nevertheless,  if  you 
are  of  the  proper  stuff,  you  can  readily,  with 
[23] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

the  equipment  the  college  has  given  you,  learn 
quicker  and  outstrip  your  fellow-workers. 
You  should  know  how  the  business  methods 
can  be  picked  up  in  the  shortest  possible 
time, — the  grammar  school  man  is  still  on  the 
first  rounds  of  the  ladder  of  experience. 

With  these  few  remarks,  I  turn  to  the  first 

really  important  question,  which  confronts  you 

and  that  is,  "Which  college  shall  I  attend?" 

To   answer  that  query  properly   for  himself 

and  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  parents,   it  is 

necessary  for  a  young  man  to  remember  that 

there  are  four  factors  which  play  an  important 

part,  in  determining  the  response.     They  are: 

1st.     Where  did  the  relatives  and  friends 

of  the  young  man  attend  college? 

2nd.    The  cost  of  college  course  and  living. 

3rd.     The  athletic  prominence  of  various 

colleges. 
4th.     What  can   a   college   offer   in   the 
course    the     student     desires    to 
pursue  ? 

[24] 


First  Letter 


As  to  the  first  factor,  Dick,  a  close  observa- 
tion of  college  conditions,  will  show  that  tra- 
ditions of  institutions  of  learning  are  so  strong 
that  a  boy  who  has  been  raised  in  a  family 
where  older  brothers  and  cousins,  not  to  speak 
of  fathers  and  grandfathers,  have  gone  to  a 
certain  college,  will  surely,  nine  out  of  ten 
times,  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his  relatives. 
Of  course,  it  is  only  too  natural  that  he  would 
care  to  sit  in  the  same  halls;  sing  and  play 
on  the  same  campus;  and  live  and  sleep  in 
the  same  atmosphere  that  the  rest  of  the  male 
members  of  his  family  and  his  friends  have 
made  use  of.  It  is  this  same  tendency  to 
follow  suit,  which  makes  many  of  our  young 
men  "dog"  the  footsteps  of  their  fathers,  and 
become  lawyers,  doctors  and  what  not,  when 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  not  suited  for 
that  particular  vocation.  My  observation  con- 
firms me  in  the  opinion  that  most  young  men 
at  the  age  of  eighteen  or  nineteen,  do  not 
know  what  they  want  to  take  up  as  their  life's 
[25] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

work.  This  is  due,  principally,  to  the  fact 
that  they  have  not  studied  the  world  enough 
to  know  what  they  are  suited  for,  or  what 
appeals  to  them.  Not  posted  in  this,  they  can 
hardly  make  an  intelligent  selection  of  a  col- 
lege best  adapted  to  their  future  needs.  It  is 
fortunate  therefore,  that  our  college  courses 
now  have  the  general  tendency  to  an  all- 
around  development,  which  gives  the  student 
an  opportunity  to  shift  the  makeup  of  his 
course  a  little  when  he  becomes  better  in- 
formed as  to  his  aim  in  life. 

Then,  under  the  first  head,  there  still  re- 
mains another  very  potent  force,  a  force  that 
is  nursed  by  the  annual  reunions, — a  magnet 
which  draws  the  alumnus  back  to  his  alma 
mater,  only  to  send  him  out  anew  all  over  our 
country  to  sing  the  praises  of  his  college. 
This  interest  and  enthusiasm  for  the  college 
and  university,  Dick,  is  cultivated  to  a  great 
extent  by  all  the  progressive  powers  in  col- 
lege, because  it  means  financial  support  in 
[26] 


First  Letter 


days  of  deficiencies,  or  in  days  of  contem- 
plated expansion.  No  man  wants  to  be  inti- 
mately connected  with  a  work  or  an  institution 
which  does  not  stand  well  in  the  front  rank 
of  its  particular  line  of  usefulness.  Its  in- 
significance becomes  a  reflection  on  the  indi- 
vidual's capability  and  energy.  So,  the  prac- 
tical result  is  that  the  older  alumni  put  up  the 
money  for  the  buildings  and  furnish  fuel  to 
make  the  machine  go  at  the  proper  pace,  while 
the  younger  graduates  see  that  the  enrollment 
is  steadily  on  the  increase,  and  further,  that 
their  college  has  winning  athletic  teams.  Few 
of  you  prospective  college  men  know  that  your 
destinies  have  been  settled  almost  from  the 
day  of  your  birth.  How  often  at  reunions  or 
wherever  several  men  get  together  for  a  few 
hours  of  social  intercourse,  have  I  not  heard 
words  of  a  trend  as  follows:  "You  boys  re- 
member Charlie  Wilson  of  the  class  of  1900?" 
"Sure."  "I  see  in  the  evening  papers  that  he 
has  an  addition  to  the  family,  and  it  is  a  boy." 

[27] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

(Almost  in  chorus)  :  "Good,  another  ball 
player  for  Yale."  These  few  words  are  in- 
dicative of  the  interest  and  the  care  with  which 
the  alumni  watch  young  America,  so  as  to 
turn  a  sufficiently  large  stream  of  hefty  youths 
through  the  gate  of  their  college.  A  little 
thought  will  show  what  a  power  of  influence 
in  its  favor  is  extended  all  over  our  country 
by  a  college  which  has  a  faithful  alumni.  It 
may  interest  you  to  hear  that  much  pressure 
is  brought  to  bear,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
on  promising  prep  school  athletes,  so  that  they 
will  enter  the  proper  college.  A  good  find  in 
a  prep  school  is  immediately  reported  to  the 
athletic  departments  of  the  colleges,  or  to 
some  alumnus  who  is  particularly  interested 
in  recruiting  good  youngsters.  The  major 
league  scouts  have  nothing  on  the  institutions 
of  learning.  This  being  so,  it  does  not  take 
an  eagle  eye  to  catch  sight  of  athletic  scholar- 
ships floating  around,  but  each  one  is  tied 
firmly  to  a  string  which  leads  to  some  one  of 
[28] 


First  Letter 


the  bolder  colleges.  I  have  not  followed  your 
past  records  closely,  but  the  mere  fact  that 
I  have  not  heard  your  name  mentioned  at  any 
of  the  college  functions  lately,  tells  me  that 
you  cannot  be  a  prep  school  star.  Therefore, 
an  athletic  scholarship  has  probably  not  been 
submitted  to  you  for  your  inspection. 

Enough  for  that,  and  follow  me,  "Dickey 
boy,"  (I  feel  that  I  am  beginning  to  know  you 
better  already),  while  I  have  a  look  at  father's 
purse.  You  will  probably  discover  before  very 
long  that  this  is  a  handy  thing  to  have  about 
the  house,  but  particularly  when  said  house 
is  more  familiarly  known  as  college.  Now  in 
all  seriousness,  how  much  you  can  spend  at 
college,  depends  entirely  on  your  father's 
ability  and  willingness  to  foot  bills.  On  the 
other  hand,  how  much  a  man  must  spend  de- 
pends on  how  few  necessities  of  life  he  needs, 
and  whether  he  can  get  a  scholarship  or  not. 
There  are  three  kinds  of  scholarships:  first, 
those  that  require  a  competitive  test ;  secondly, 
[29] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

those  that  are  handed  out  by  the  college 
authorities  to  young  men  who  cannot  afford 
to  pay  tuition,  and  thirdly,  the  above  men- 
tioned athletic  scholarship  which  goes  to  the 
man  who  can  do  a  hundred  yards  in  ten-flat 
or  better.  The  cost  of  tuition  in  the  various 
colleges  is  about  the  same,  and  not  very  high. 
Of  course,  where  a  person's  means  are  lim- 
ited, it  is  easier  to  get  along  where  the  average 
student  has  less  to  spend.  At  some  colleges, 
the  social  life  is  far  more  expensive  than  at 
others.  Then  again,  if  a  young  man  wants 
to  work  his  way  through  college,  it  is  probably 
at  the  higher  price  institutions  that  he  can, 
with  more  ease,  find  some  congenial  work  to 
do.  So  you  see,  "the  shoe  must  fit  the  foot 
that  is  to  wear  it."  But  why  bother  ourselves 
in  your  case  about  cost  of  college  and  living. 
A  mercantile  report  of  your  Dad  which  I  saw 
the  other  day  said  something  about  Credit  A- 1. 
Do  not  understand  me  to  imply  that  it's  up  to 
you  to  make  it  too  hot  for  the  goose  (in  this 
[30] 


First  Letter 


case  a  gander)  that  lays  the  golden  eggs.  Not 
for  a  minute.  All  I  mean  to  say,  is  that  as  I 
know  your  father,  I  am  sure  that  he  wants 
you  to  go  to  college;  further  he  wants  you  to 
go  right.  Then  I'll  add,  that  you  ought  to  go 
on  a  reasonable  allowance.  So  much  for  the 
"where-with-all"  at  this  time.  This  factor 
does  not  play  a  very  large  part  in  the  selection 
of  your  college. 

Now  for  the  factor  which  brings  to  an  in- 
stitution its  large  undergraduate  body.  That 
is  the  athletic  prominence  of  a  college.  We 
may  almost  call  it  the  undertow  which  often 
draws  a  boy  against  his  will,  if  he  does  not 
take  a  firm  foothold  in  the  sands  of  common 
sense.  An  institution  of  learning  may  have 
the  best  course  of  study,  as  well  as  a  faculty 
superior  in  every  way,  and  yet  it  cannot  com- 
pete with  a  college  which  has  an  inferior 
course,  but  is  strongly  represented  on  the 
athletic  field.  Athletic  teams  and  sport  equip- 
[31] 


Are    You    G oing   to    College 

ment  are  the  very  best  advertisement  for  a 
university. 

Earlier  in  my  letter  I  have  said  something 
about  athletic  scholarships.  I  do  not  believe 
that  these  would  have  been  fostered,  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  fact  that  the  colleges  with 
athletic  prominence  were  in  a  better  position 
to  attract  the  young  prep  school  men,  than 
their  less  victorious  rivals.  After  persuasion 
did  not  bring  about  the  desired  result,  some 
bright  individual  conceived  the  idea  of  tickling 
a  boy's  vanity  and  also  his  pocket-book  by 
saying  to  him,  "Here,  we  will  give  you  your 
tuition  free."  At  the  present  time  compara- 
tively few  people  know  that  young  Smith  is 
getting  a  good  foundation  laid  for  his  life's 
work.  But  the  chances  are,  that  at  least  five 
hundred  thousand  readers  of  the  Sunday 
morning  papers  will  remember  that  Arthur 
Poe  made  a  ninety  yard  run  and  won  the  foot- 
ball game  for  Princeton  a  few  years  ago. 
Again,  the  public  knows  when  Foster  of  Har- 
[32] 


First  Letter 


vard  strains  a  tendon;  but  there  are  hardly  a 
hundred  well-balanced  mortals  who  can  tell 
you  who  won  the  Inter-collegiate  debate  last 
year. 

Why  Dick,  you  may  go  through  college 
and  never  get  an  idea  of  what  college  ath- 
letics really  mean  these  days.  Only  a  few 
years  ago  a  manager  representing  one  institu- 
tion, say  "A,"  would  write  to  a  neighboring 
seat  of  learning  for  a  friendly  game  of 
"what  not"  to  take  place  on  a  Saturday  sev- 
eral weeks  off.  "Come  up  to  our  grounds  to 
play  us  and  we  will  pay  your  expenses  to  get 
here"  would  write  said  Mr.  Manager.  Reply 
from  college  "B"  would  read :  "Sure,  we  will 
come,  we  take  for  granted  that  game  will  be 
played  in  the  afternoon."  So  everything  was 
fixed.  On  the  day  of  the  game  the  students 
and  faculty  wandered  out  to  the  field  and 
applauded  the  good  plays. 

Now  let's  see  the  difference.  In  many  of 
the  colleges  today  they  have  a  graduate  man- 
[33] 


Are    You   Going   to    College 

ager  on  a  fixed  salary ;  because  it  was  found 
that  the  student  manager  could  not  do  justice 
to  his  studies  and  at  the  same  time  carry  a 
team  through  its  season  successfully.  Let  me 
give  you  an  outline  of  this  athletic  machine, 
or  to  be  accurate, — ^business.  I  call  it  a  busi- 
ness, because  it  takes  a  proper  mercantile  or- 
ganization to  keep  the  boys  from  getting 
swamped  and  into  financial  difficulties. 

As  the  theory  is,  that  the  athletics  are  to  be 
run  by  the  students,  we  generally  find  that 
each  undergraduate  class  elects  one  or  more 
representatives,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  repre- 
sent it  on  an  athletic  board.  Sometimes  if  an 
institution  has  graduate  departments,  they  are 
also  represented  on  the  governing  board.  In 
addition  to  these  factions,  no  up-to-date  col- 
lege forgets  its  graduates,  as  they  generally 
have  a  wider  business  experience,  and  at  the 
same  time,  if  properly  picked  (with  accent  on 
the  "picked")  can  also  be  of  financial  assist- 
ance when  the  season  has  not  panned  out  well. 
[34] 


First  Letter 


So  two  or  three  of  these  men  are  also  found 
on  the  board. 

This  board  after  it  has  properly  organized, 
selects  business  managers  for  the  various 
teams.  I  use  the  plural,  because  it  takes  a 
student  manager  with  at  least  two  or  three 
assistants  for  each  team,  to  do  the  work  effi- 
ciently. Of  course,  the  graduate  manager  who 
is  on  a  salary,  has  the  supervision  of  all  the 
teams;  and  steps  in  with  his  experience  and 
advice,  when  the  student  manager — who  gen- 
erally serves  only  in  his  senior  year — is  up 
against  a  tough  nut  to  crack. 

Take  a  look  at  a  crowded  stadium  some 
autumn  afternoon,  when  a  large  game  is  being 
played,  and  you  will  see  that  it  takes  a  good 
treasurer  to  look  after  the  thousands  of  dol- 
lars that  pour  in  the  gates  in  a  short  space  of 
time.  Do  you  wonder  that  it  is  proper  to 
have  him  and  the  ticket  sellers  bonded?  The 
athletic  board  must  also  have  its  finance  com- 
mittee, as  some  teams  do  not  support  them- 


[35 


Are   You   Going   to   College 

selves,  and  must  be  held  above  water  by  the 
more  remunerative  ones.  In  other  words,  the 
scholastic  season  must  show  a  profit  in  ath- 
letics. 

After  each  team  has  its  managers,  it  must 
have  its  captain,  and  last,  but  not  least,  its 
professional  or  graduate  coach.  To  assist 
these  we  also  generally  find  an  advisory  com- 
mittee for  each  sport. 

The  arranging  of  a  schedule  takes  months 
of  hard  work,  and  is  often  started  six  months 
before  the  contests  come  off.  Contracts  must 
be  drawn  up,  and  sometimes  arbitration  com- 
mittees called  upon,  before  the  terms  as  to 
gate  receipts  can  be  finally  adjusted.  Then 
the  professional  coach — his  terms  must  be 
met,  or  taken  down  to  figures  within  reason. 
By  the  way,  you  may  just  as  well  sink  it  into 
your  head  right  now,  that  if  you  want  a  win- 
ning team,  you  must  have  a  good  coach.  All 
closely  contested  games  are  these  days  won 
from    the    side   lines.     Experienced    athletes 

[36] 


First  Letter 


know  that,  and,  therefore,  are  willing  to  sig^ 
up  the  modern  coaches  at  a  high  figure.  Good 
coaches  are  almost  born,  not  made ;  and,  there- 
fore, as  scarce  as  the  proverbial  hen's  teeth. 
How  often  do  you  find  men  like  Murphy, 
Donovan,  Courtney  and  "Hurry-up"  Yost? 
They  are  few  and  far  between. 

The  progressive  athletic  organization  has 
also  its  publicity  branch.  There  are  the  stu- 
dent reporters ;  but  if  they  do  not  measure  up, 
then  interviews  must  be  arranged  with  the 
editors  of  the  leading  dailies,  so  that  the  col- 
lege is  properly  "spaced."  The  large  stadiums 
have  been  built  and  interest  must  often  be 
paid  on  the  money  invested;  hence  the  gradu- 
ates and  friends  all  over  the  country  must  be 
kept  interested,  so  that  they  will  attend  the 
games. 

Then  again,  when  a  first  class  team  goes  on 
a  trip  away  from  its  home  grounds,  it  almost 
rivals  Barnum  and  Bailey's  circus,  or  a  train- 
load  of  opera  singers.    "Day  coaches!  not  on 


[37] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

your  life,"  says  the  head  coach.  "We  must 
have  parlor  cars  or  our  one  hundred  and 
ninety  pound  full-back  may  hurt  his  punting 
leg."  Later,  when  the  squad  gets  to  the  hotel 
and  has  been  quartered,  each  man  alongside 
of  his  private  bath,  we  again  hear  the  cheerful 
head  coach:  "Say,  manager,  what  has  be- 
come of  those  bottles  of  drinking  water  that 
were  to  come  down  with  us?  These  'pups'  of 
mine  want  a  drink  before  supper,  and  this 
water  is  not  fit  to  drink."  Yes,  this  is  to  show 
you,  if  you  do  not  know  it  already,  that  these 
young  athletes  are  cared  for  like  the  modern 
race  horse.  Old  Maud  S.  had  nothing  on 
these  so-called  "pups."  "Foolishness" — you 
say, — "not  on  your  life,"  respond  I,  who  have 
coached  a  good  many  teams  myself.  Yet 
wait !  I  must  not  wander  off  into  a  lecture  on 
coaching,  possibly  more  of  this  anon ;  but  now 
I  am  trying  to  help  you  pick  your  college. 

This  organization  of  college  athletics,  nat- 
urally, makes  a  great  impression  on  the  prep- 

[38] 


First  Letter 


school  boy.  It  is  true  he  does  not  see  the 
inner  mechanism,  but  he  knows  that  all  the 
best  men  gravitate  to  the  larger  colleges  and 
the  best  coach,  and  are  treated  with  respect 
and  made  comfortable  there.  He  has  learned 
that  he  cares  more  to  play  before  a  large  au- 
dience, than  a  sickly  gathering  of  spectators. 
In  short,  Dick,  he  wants  to  be  an  actor  in  a 
big  production.  This  attitude  of  mind  is  per- 
fectly human,  and  certainly  the  best  policy  to 
pursue  if  athletics  was  the  object  and  end  for 
a  man  going  to  college.  It,  however,  should 
not  be,  and  I  know  is  not  with  you.  So  I  sug- 
gest the  best  rule  for  a  fellow  to  follow  is 
first  to  pick  out  the  college,  which  offers,  in 
the  best  way,  the  course  he  cares  to  pursue; 
and  then,  should  there  be  several  of  an  equally 
high  standard,  which  is  often  the  case, — then 
select  the  one  with  the  best  athletic  equipment. 
It  just  strikes  me  that  if  your  parents 
should  happen  to  read  this  letter,  and  "I  do 
not  care  if  they  do," — they  will  probably  smile 

[  39  ] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

at  the  fact  that  I  am  taking  up  college  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  course  of  study,  last. 
But  my  observation  has  been  that  a  boy  first 
gets  the  idea  of  college  from  his  relations  or 
friends.  Next,  he  begins  to  inquire  whether 
father  can  afford  it.  Then,  it  strikes  him  that 
athletics  are  interesting;  and  lastly,  he  begins 
to  think  of  what  course  he  wants  to  take  up. 

Now,  in  your  case,  Dick,  after  reading  your 
letter  over  again,  I  gather  from  it  that  you 
have  not  determined  on  any  particular  course. 
You  say  you  want  something  in  the  way  of  a 
general  education,  and  then  again,  should  you 
fall  in  love  with  some  profession  and  desire 
to  follow  it,  you  want  to  be  in  a  position  to 
turn  your  course  in  that  direction.  What  you 
need,  my  boy,  is  something  like  a  blanket  in- 
surance policy;  or  a  medicine  that  cures  all 
ills  for  twenty-five  cents !  You  want  a  college 
course  to  cover  all  professions  and  also  a  com- 
mercial course.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is, 
Dick,  you  had  better  do  a  little  more  investi- 

[40] 


First  Letter 


gating  for  the  next  few  months,  and  I  shall 
keep  my  eyes  open  for  something  new.  But 
I  can  promise  you  that  we  will  get  you  started 
in  the  right  direction  by  fall. 

I  have  a  few  other  college  things  that  you 
ought  to  know  about,  but  I  guess  this  letter 
will  hold  you  for  a  while. 

My  regards  to  the  folks  and  remember  that 
anything  that  I  can  do  for  the  son  of  Tom 
Dawson,  is  a  pleasure  to 

Yours  sincerely, 

Harold  James. 


[41] 


June  8th. 
^JPi  EAR  DICK:— I  read  from  your  last 
TH  letter  that  you  have  decided  to  take  a 
general  collegiate  course,  with  the  idea 
of  eventually  going  into  your  father's  busi- 
ness. You  do  not  believe  that  you  are  suited 
for  a  professional  career.  Well,  it  takes  all 
kinds  of  people  to  make  the  world  to  go  along 
properly,  so  I  guess  you  will  do  for  a  business 
man  all  right.  All  of  us  are  here  to  do  some 
work,  and  if  we  do  that  which  is  assigned  to 
us  faithfully,  we'll  get  our  credits  when  the 
time  comes  around. 

And  so  you  prefer  to  go  to  Hastings  Uni- 
versity. A  very  good  selection  for  your  pur- 
pose.    I  congratulate  you  and  also  Hastings. 

You  ask  me  whether  it  is  better  to  live  in 
the  college  dormitory,  or  in  a  Fraternity 
House?     Now  since  you  want  me  to  call  an 

[42] 


Second   Letter 


ace  an  ace,  and  a  spade  a  spade,  it  devolves 
upon  me  to  tell  you  that  you  are  not,  at  this 
time,  in  a  position  to  choose.  I  do  not  know 
whether  you  are  acquainted  with  the  fact  or 
not,  but  no  man  can  get  into  a  fraternity  un- 
less he  is  asked  to,  by  an  insider.  So  I  would 
not  bother  about  living  accommodations  until 
just  before  I  entered  college  in  the  fall.  If 
any  of  your  friends  ask  you  about  your  living 
arrangements,  just  talk  dormitories.  Of  course, 
when  it  comes  to  dormitories, — and  in  fact 
anything  at  college, — you  will  find  that  the 
upper  classmen  always  have  their  pick. 

I  also  notice  that  you  say  that  mother  wants 
to  help  you  to  get  fixed.  Please  give  mother 
my  best  regards  and  tell  her  for  me,  that  it 
is  far  better  for  you  to  pick  out  your  own 
living  accommodations,  and  then  after  college 
has  been  in  swing  for  a  few  weeks,  she  can 
drop  in  and  pay  you  a  visit,  to  approve  or 
disapprove  of  your  arrangements.  Let  "Pa" 
and  "Ma"  give  you  the  financial  limits,  and 


[43] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

then  you  go  ahead,  Dick.  Of  course,  mother 
feels  that  she  ought  to  look  out  for  her  boy, 
and  only  justly  so,  but  unfortunately,  the 
average  college  man  does  not  care  to  see  the 
sign  of  apron-strings  about  the  campus.  I  do 
not  know  of  any  other  class  of  men  that  is  so 
much  influenced  by  small  things.  It  is  a  pity 
to  see  how  often  bully  good  men  handicap 
their  position  in  college  by  not  being  coached 
up  on  the  importance  of  small  things. 

Your  mentioning  the  Fraternity  House 
brings  me  to  the  subject  of  Fraternities  in 
general.  I  am  not  going  to  give  you  a  long 
historical  lecture  on  Fraternities,  Dick.  Nor 
am  I  going  to  take  up  the  discussion  of  whether 
Fraternities  are  detrimental  to  democratic  col- 
lege life  or  not, — ^because,  although  I  am  my- 
self a  "frat"  man  (this  abreviation  may  not 
meet  with  favor  at  Hastings, — inquire),  I  con- 
fess that  I  am  unprepared  to  say  whether  or 
not  college  life  would  be  better  off  without 
the  fraternal  influence.    Possibly  if  I  keep  in 

[44] 


Second   Letter 


touch  with  the  boys  a  few  years  longer,  I  may 
be  able  to  make  a  conclusive  deduction  one 
way  or  the  other.  Those  that  are  opposed  to 
societies  argue  that  they  form  cliques  in  the 
college  life  of  a  university  and  that,  therefore, 
they  should  be  removed.  I  know  of  cases 
where  their  influence  has  been  harmful  and 
this  fact  made  me  observe  more  closely.  Fur- 
ther, there  are  institutions  where  no  Fraterni- 
ties are  allowed  with  the  result  that  select 
eating  clubs  and  similar  organizations  have 
practically  taken  their  place.  It  seems  to  me, 
from  what  I  have  read  in  history  and  politics, 
and  what  I  know  of  the  make-up  of  man,  as 
studied  in  the  laboratory  of  everyday  life, 
that  men  or  women  of  similar  characteristics 
and  habits,  or  engaged  in  the  same  activities, 
will  sooner  or  later  drift  towards  each  other, — 
thus  leaving  those  that  do  not  attract  them, 
to  find  persons  who  have  a  mutual  interest. 
There  is  a  good  old  proverb  which  reads: 
"Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together."    I  know 


[45] 


Are    You    G oing   to    College 

that  from  time  immemorial,  there  have  been 
social  cliques;  and  I  am  inclined  to  believe 
that  we  shall  have  them  for  some  time  to  come. 

Now,  the  practical  question  for  you,  Uick, 
and  all  prep  school  men,  is  how  to  handle  this 
mystery  called  a  Fraternity.  For  the  present, 
it  is  with  us  and  very  much  so.  The  first 
thing  that  interests  a  youngster,  is  a  fancy  pin 
which  he  spies  on  the  vest  or  shirt  of  a  college 
man.  Inquiry  reveals  to  him  the  fact  that  it 
is  a  fraternity  pin;  the  insignia  of  a  secret 
organization,  which  possesses  a  large  house 
into  which  only  a  limited  number  of  men  are 
asked  to  enter  and  join,  as  members.  Grad- 
ually he  studies  the  pins  of  the  college  men  he 
meets,  and  begins  to  wonder  which  pin  he 
would  prefer  to  wear. 

On  entering  college  in  the  fall,  you  will,  in 
all  probability,  be  asked  to  visit  some  of  the 
Frat  houses  so  that  you  may  meet  the  boys. 
Then  while  you  are  taking  an  inventory  of  the 
inside  of  the  Fraternity  House,  you  yourself 

[46] 


Second   Letter 


are  being  closely  inspected  by  the  members  of 
the  Society.  Entertainments  of  all  kinds  are 
given  so  as  to  impress  the  freshman  or  prep- 
school  man.  Older  Alumni  will  shake  you  by 
the  hand,  and  let  you  know  what  a  wonderful 
Society  they  belong  to.  How  it  extends  from 
the  North  through  the  South,  and  clear  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Golden  Gate  of  the  Pacific. 
Further,  you  will  gaze  upon  books  like  "Who's 
Who  In  America,"  which  will  show  you  (just 
casually,  of  course)  that  twenty- five  well- 
known  Senators  and  thirty-five  men  of  letters, 
not  to  speak  of  all  the  prominent  college  ath- 
letes, are  members  of  the  particular  Fraternity 
whose  guest  you  are  that  evening.  To  be 
frank  with  you,  my  boy,  you  will  hear  of  all 
the  merits  of  the  Fraternity  to  which  your  host 
belongs,  and  in  some  cases  also, — I  am  sorry 
to  say — the  demerits  of  the  other  Frats,  who 
may  be  competitors  for  your  hand. 

I  use  the  term  "competitor,"  because  it  is  an 
established  fact,  that  several  Frats  are  gener- 


[47 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

ally  after  the  more  prominent  material  in  the 
freshman  class.  There  are  three  classes  of 
men  who  are  candidates  for  Societies:  first, 
men  who  have  stood  out  prominently  in  the 
prep  schools  as  athletes  or  otherwise ;  secondly, 
men  who  have  peculiarly  desirable  social  con- 
nections, and  lastly,  the  good,  reliable  man  who 
has  prospects  of  making  good  and  who  is  a 
gentleman. 

The  same  human  characteristic  which  draws 
a  boy  to  the  colleges  which  have  a  fine  lot  of 
athletes,  also  coaxes  those  same  boys  into  the 
Frats  to  which  the  athletes  belong.  Hence, 
you  can  readily  see  that  the  thing  for  the 
Frats  to  do,  is  to  land  the  leaders  and  athletes 
first,  leaving  their  attention  as  far  as  the  dark 
horses  are  concerned,  until  last.  In  some  col- 
leges the  competition  in  the  selection  of  men 
has  become  so  keen,  that  the  Fraternities  no 
longer  wait  until  a  man  reaches  the  institution, 
but  they  go  into  the  prep  schools  to  pledge  or 
bind  him.     This,  Richard,  I  consider  a  very 

[48] 


Second   Letter 


harmful  practice  and  should  be  abolished. 
Some  of  the  college  authorities  have  taken 
this  matter  in  hand.  They  have  laid  down 
the  rule  that  no  man  can  be  bound  to  any 
Society  until  after  his  Freshman  year.  In 
other  institutions,  the  Frats  themselves  have 
done  away  with  this  cut-throat  competition, 
by  forming  agreements  under  which  no  man 
can  be  approached  before  he  has  been  in  col- 
lege a  certain  length  of  time.  This  regulation 
is  just,  equitable  and  desirable  for  both  the 
Fraternity  and  the  candidate  for  admission. 
For  the  world  of  me, — I  cannot  see  why  prep 
school  pledging  is  not  done  away  with  in  all 
colleges.  Is  it  possible  that  certain  faculties 
are  not  in  close  touch  with  social  conditions 
in  their  colleges, — or  is  it  that  in  certain  col- 
leges the  weaker  chapters  are  afraid  to  stand 
on  a  footing  of  fair  competition?  I  am  in- 
clined to  the  latter  conclusion,  because  where 
the  Frats  get  together,  action  on  the  part  of 
the  faculty  is  not  necessary. 

[49] 


Are    You   G oing   to    College 

I  can  see  you  shake  your  head  now,  Dick, 
and  say,  "What  difference  does  it  make  if  a 
man  is  pledged  before  he  gets  to  college"? 
Bear  with  me  a  minute,  and  I  will  put  you 
straight.  I  have  written  to  you  before,  that 
when  a  man  goes  to  college,  he  is  generally 
compelled  to  pick  up  an  entirely  new  set  of 
friends.  It  is  another  important  fact  that 
when  he  makes  a  Frat,  his  time  is  so  occupied 
with  his  society  brothers,  especially  if  he  lives 
in  the  Society  House,  that  he  makes  few 
close  friends  outside  of  this  circle.  The  third 
fact, — and  a  very  significant  one  which  my 
observation  of  boys  has  assured  me  of, — is 
that  every  boy  who  goes  to  college  is  influenced 
by  his  environment.  The  men  that  he  travels 
with,  will  either  "make  him  or  break  him." 
Of  course,  Dick,  we  can  find  a  good  old  steady 
brick  anywhere,  but  the  best  we  can  do  is  to 
call  him  the  exception  to  the  rule. 

I  further  know  that  a  boy  who  pledges 
himself  before  reaching  college,  cannot  know 

[50] 


Second   Letter 


the  members  of  a  Fraternity  well  enough  to 
determine  whether  they  will  be  congenial  to 
him  or  not.  And  this  first,  because  he  cannot 
determine  what  boys  will  be  members  of  the 
Frat  with  him,  in  his  freshman  class;  and 
secondly,  because  he  must  live  on  the  college 
campus  before  he  can  tell  what  standing  the 
members  of  each  Frat  have  in  the  college  com- 
munity. 

So  you  see  how  you  prep  school  men  can 
draw  an  awful  pig  in  a  bag,  in  the  way  of 
college  chums.  You  may  not  discover  your 
mistake  until  after  you  have  been  in  college 
six  months;  and,  of  course,  once  in  a  Frat 
you  can  never  change  horses.  Keep  your  eye 
open  for  the  Society  which  treats  you  cor- 
dially ;  but  whose  members  are  not  too  aggres- 
sive, and  anxious  to  pledge  you.  Do  this,  and 
you  will  not  live  to  regret  a  hasty  action. 

Then  again,  some  boys  draw  a  "lemon"  and 
never  know  it  themselves.  I  say  "themselves," 
because  they  are  carried  on  and  their  character 


[51] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

moulded  by  the  company  which  they  keep, 
without  their  getting  a  chance  to  study  the 
general  effect.  The  faculty  will  see  the  result, 
and  all  the  other  boys  at  college  will  know  it, 
only  to  hand  it  along  to  friends  in  the  home 
town.  "Harry  Crawford"?  (with  a  smile) 
Oh!  he  is  all  right,  the  only  trouble  is,  he  got 
in  with  a  fast  crowd  at  college."  Next  comes 
an  investigation  by  father,  provided  father 
can  believe  it  of  Harry, — and  Harry  is  either 
called  home,  or  transplanted  to  another  col- 
lege. If  father  does  not  get  wise,  then  Harry 
will  more  than  likely  drift  along  from  bad  to 
worse. 

Why  I  know  you  won't  believe  it  when  I 
tell  you,  that  I  have  seen  brothers,  who  have 
belonged  to  different  Fraternities  in  the  same 
college,  come  out  entirely  different, — although 
raised  by  the  same  parents  and  sent  through 
the  same  prep  schools.  I  repeat,  his  friends 
at  college  will  either  "make  or  break  a  man." 

The  other  day  I  was  talking  to  a  prep  school 

[52] 


Second   Letter 


boy,  along  the  line  of  the  hints  in  this  letter, 
and  he  told  me  that  there  was  a  report  circu- 
lated in  their  school,  that  it  was  necessary  for 
a  man  to  accept  the  first  bid  which  he  received 
from  a  Frat,  or  he  would  not  get  another. 
He  further  informed  me  that  on  account  of 
this  bug  in  their  ears,  several  of  his  friends 
had  immediately  pledged  themselves.  I  simply 
looked  at  him  and  said  "what  fools  these 
mortals  be,"  meanwhile  thinking  of  a  police 
magistrate  friend  of  mine,  who  had  said  to  me 
not  so  very  long  before :  "Mr.  James,  I  see  a 
good  deal  of  life  here,  and  I  have,  after  due 
consideration,  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
three-quarters  of  the  people  are  fools,  while 
the  other  quarter  are  damn  fools."  Just  to 
think,  Dick,  that  boys  of  not  less  than  seven- 
teen years  of  age  would  swallow  a  story  like 
that!  Then  again  there  is  a  sad  side  to  this 
fraternity  story,  which  we  can  not  get  away 
from ;  and  that  is,  that  in  some  of  our  colleges 
the  Frats  are  not  playing  fair.  They  are  either 


£531 


Are    You    G oing   to    College 

cheating  the  prep  school  boy,  or  themselves. 
Time  will  tell. 

I  do  not  want  you  to  get  the  idea,  Richard, 
that  I  am  opposed  to  your  joining  a  society. 
Not  for  the  world !  I  am  too  hot  a  f rat  man 
myself;  but  I  have  tried  to  show  you  the 
danger  of  pledging  yourself  to  any  society  be- 
fore you  enter  college.  Should  you  be  in- 
vited to  any  "rushers"  for  new  men,  or  what- 
ever they  may  be  called,  I  would  advise  you 
to  accept  all  that  come  your  way.  Go  to  them, 
and  gather  all  the  information  you  can,  so  as 
to  place  yourself  in  a  position  to  judge  intelli- 
gently, if  you  are  asked  to  join.  Ask  ques- 
tions of  any  of  the  men,  and  they  will  be  only 
too  glad  to  answer  them;  and  should  you,  by 
reason  of  your  inexperience,  get  too  close  to 
matters  which  they  are  not  supposed  to  di- 
vulge, then  you  will  find  yourself  gently  turned 
into  proper  channels. 

Further,  it  is  very  important  for  you  to 
dress  properly.     By  that  I  mean,  nothing  ex- 

[54] 


Second   Letter 


treme  in  the  way  of  styles  or  finery,  but  simply 
neat  and  above  all  things,  clean  linen.  You 
may  say  "that  ideal  clothes  do  not  make  the 
man."  This  is  very  true,  Dick,  but  the  first 
impression  that  a  man  makes,  counts  for  a 
great  deal.  You  see  there  will  be  a  great  many 
men  in  your  college,  just  like  you,  who  will 
not  be  well  known  to  the  boys.  You  may  be 
invited  to  a  Frat  function,  and  if  you  go  there 
looking  like  "sloppy  weather,"  you  may  not 
get  another  chance,  or  at  least,  not  for  some 
time,  to  show  the  chaps  that  you  are  more  of 
a  man  than  your  clothes  indicate.  The  sopho- 
more may  not  look  his  best  when  he  makes  a 
quick  change  from  bed  to  chapel;  but  he  is 
just  the  man  who  expects  a  freshman  to  look 
immaculate  as  far  as  his  linen  is  concerned. 
A  student  of  human  nature  once  remarked: 
"Pigs  is  pigs."  After  a  year  at  college  you 
will  ejaculate:  "Sophs  is  Sophs."  This  deli- 
cate phrase  can  be  interpreted  into  "Sophs  are 
hunters  for  trouble." 


[55] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

The  prominent  characteristic  about  the 
esteemed  sophomore,  is  that  he  can  always 
discover  something  wrong  about  a  freshman. 
To  him,  the  first  year  man  is  too  fresh  and 
needs  some  of  his  freshness  taken  out;  or  he 
is  too  quiet  and  needs  some  ginger.  My  ob- 
servation has  been  that  this  turning  point 
between  freshness  and  too  quiet,  is  a  very 
difficult  thing  to  find.  It's  generally  a  case  of 
"when  in  doubt  swat  the  freshman."  So  at 
fraternity  functions,  or  wherever  you  come  in 
contact  with  the  upper  classmen,  treat  them 
respectfully  and  civilly,  but  be  not  too  fresh. 

I  happened  to  be  in  a  home  one  evening, 
when  a  matron  who  was  very  popular  socially, 
gave  her  final  instructions  to  her  daughter, 
just  before  she  formally  presented  her  to  the 
world.  Her  words  were  short  and  to  the 
point:  "Helen,  remember,  always  be  neat, 
and  talk,  talk,  talk !"  I  will  say  to  you,  Dick, 
"Always  be  neat,  and  talk,  but  not  too  boldly." 
The  boys  do  not  care  to  entertain  a  stick,  but 

[56] 


Second   Letter 


an  unpardonable  sin,  is  lack  of  respect  to  older 
class  men. 

By  the  way,  should  you,  as  you  are  making 
the  rounds  of  the  societies,  run  across  a  very 
elaborate  house  equipment,  please  do  not  for- 
get that  all  you  see  costs  money.  Now,  with 
Fraternities,  as  with  everything  else  in  life,  it 
takes  money  to  make  the  mare  go.  Especially 
when  said  mare  must  carry  a  lot  of  college 
boys  who  go  on  a  party  every  once  in  a  while. 
Parties  often  mean  broken  crockery,  etc.,  etc. 
Then  again,  I  have  on  some  evenings  wan- 
dered into  a  society's  room  and  found  every- 
thing very  peaceful,  only  a  half  hour  later  to 
suddenly  find  numerous  freshmen  and  sopho- 
mores in  violent  combat.  Inquiry  on  my  part 
as  to  the  cause  of  this  sudden  storm  would 
produce  the  laconic  reply  "One  of  those  darn 
freshmen  started  something."  Net  result:  one 
supposedly-to-be  improved  freshman,  which 
cost  the  Society  fifty  dollars  in  furniture. 
Well,  in  short,  it  costs  to  run  any  institution, 


[57] 


Are    You    G oing   to    College 

and  you  will  find  that  membership  fees  in 
Fraternities  are  generally  capitalized  on  how 
much  of  a  splurge  the  boys  want  to  make. 
Do  not  forget  to  find  out  the  price.  Good 
things  come  high,  but  there  is  no  sense  in 
paying  more  for  them  than  they  are  worth. 

While  you  are  being  courted  or  rushed  by 
the  various  Societies  (should  you  be  so  for- 
tunate as  to  make  a  favorable  impression), 
you  will  surely  be  informed  of  the  fact  that  a 
certain  Frat  is  only  a  local ;  do  not  be  alarmed 
at  this  revelation.  A  local  is  nothing  more  or 
less  than  a  society  which  is  confined  to  the 
college  which  you  are  attending.  All  other 
Fraternities  are  national  in  scope,  and  are  sup- 
posed to  have  chapters  or  units  over  the  width 
and  breadth  of  the  land.  Of  course,  it's  a 
great  talking  point,  and  it  makes  a  great  im- 
pression to  think  that  wherever  you  go  you 
will  be  hailed  by  the  name  of  "brother,"  but 
remember,  that  it  is  more  important  for  you 
to  get  in  with  a  clean,  healthy  crowd  of  fel- 

[58] 


Second  Letter 


lows  in  college,  than  to  build  on  prospects. 
Frats  like  all  social  organizations,  are  bound 
to  have  some  individuals  or  groups  of  men 
within  their  make-up  who  are  not  just  up  to 
the  mark.  My  suggestion  is  Dick,  that  you 
take  your  time  and  make  a  thorough  study  of 
society  conditions  at  Hastings  before  you 
make  your  final  decision.  Keep  your  eye  on 
other  nice  boys  in  your  class  and  see  which 
way  they  go ;  they  will  be  your  friends  in  the 
senior  class.  Naturally,  if  you  had  any  broth- 
ers in  certain  Frats  their  connection  would 
play  some  part  in  your  deliberations.  Then, 
when  you  have  picked  the  crowd  that  you 
want  and  they  want  you,  go  in  and  become  a 
real  rattling  good  frat  man,  and  feel  proud  of 
your  selection. 

Good-night,  Dick,  and  do  not  forget  to  re- 
member me  to  mother,  and  that  curly-headed 
sister,  Carrie,  of  yours.  Also  tell  the  boss  that 
I  am  going  to  drop  into  Philadelphia  soon,  to 
smoke  one  of  those  black  boys  with  him. 
Yours  sincerely, 

Harold  James. 
[59] 


October  25TH. 
^P|  EAR  DICK: — I  have  been  so  busy, 
XlI  since  my  return  from  that  little  business 
trip  to  Europe,  getting  matters  up  to 
date,  that  I  had  almost  forgotten  that  a  young 
man  by  the  name  of  Richard  Dawson  was  still 
clinging  to  this  terrestial  ball.  So  you  have 
been  a  college  man  for  over  a  month,  and  say 
that  you  feel  pretty  well  broken  in!  I  can't 
just  figure  out  what  you  mean  by  "broken  in.'* 
Peradventure,  do  you  wish  to  convey  the  idea 
that  you  are  getting  on  as  far  as  your  studies 
are  concerned,  or  have  the  sophomores  broken 
you  in? 

And  you  "have  gone  and  done  it."  To  think 
that  after  all  that  good  advice  I  gave  you,  you 
have  tied  up  with  a  Frat  within  a  month's 
time  of  your  arrival  on  the  campus.  Well, 
your  arguments  on  the  facts  at  hand  are  good, 

[60] 


Third  Letter 


and  from  your  selection  I  can  say  that  you  hit 
the  bull's  eye,  even  if  you  did  not  take  a  long 
aim.  Let  me  congratulate  you  and  add, 
"Lucky  Boy." 

My  last  letter  to  you,  Dick,  gave  you  a  num- 
ber of  hints  as  to  how  a  Society  should  be 
handled  by  an  outsider.  Now  that  you  are  an 
insider,  I  will  ask  you  to  lend  me  your  ears  a 
few  minutes,  while  I  give  you  a  few  observa- 
tions on  how  you  should  conduct  yourself  as  a 
fraternity  man.  (By  the  way,  whenever  you 
write  me,  I  take  it  for  granted  you  are  ready 
for  some  more  hints  or  you  would  not  write) . 
In  a. general  way,  the  student  body  of  a  college 
where  they  have  Fraternities,  is  divided  into 
two  classes:  Frat  men  and  Non-Frat  men. 
The  Non-Frats  are  again  divided  into  men 
who  would  like  to  get  into  a  society;  and  men 
who  have  been  asked,  but  who  for  financial 
reasons,  or  others,  do  not  care  to  join.  Now 
the  fraternity  men  are  more  at  liberty  to  act 
and  do  as  they  please,  than  the  other  students. 


[61] 


Are    You    G oing   to    College 

Everybody  knows  that  they  are  not  being  con- 
sidered as  possible  candidates  for  membership 
in  a  Society;  they  are  it.  They  can  go  up  to 
any  clique  of  fellows  and  "butt  in"  at  all  times 
and  almost  any  place,  without  being  thought 
ill  of.  On  the  other  hand,  consider  the  Non- 
Frat  man.  He  knows  that  there  are  moments 
when  he  is  not  wanted,  because  a  bunch  of 
men  who  belong  to  the  same  Frat  want  to  talk 
over  some  private  or  secret  matters.  If  he  is 
of  a  refined  temperament,  he  will  hesitate  to 
mix  in  too  freely  with  a  bunch  of  men,  if 
mostly  frat  men  are  present.  He  is  afraid  that 
his  harmless  familiarity  and  good  fellowship 
will  be  misinterpreted  as  a  sort  of  planned 
aggressiveness  on  his  part  to  get  in.  Of  course, 
the  man  who  has  been  asked  to  join  is  in  a 
freer  position  than  the  out  and  out  non-frat 
man.  The  former  has  the  satisfaction  of  the 
stamp  of  approval ;  the  latter  feels  that  he  has 
been  weighed  and  found  wanting,  or  has  not 
even  been  taken  up  for  consideration.     Dick, 

[62] 


Third   Letter 


you  will  at  times  wonder  why  some  of  the 
men  who  you  were  very  close  to  in  prep 
school,  suddenly  treat  you  with  more  reserve. 
The  reasons  are,  first,  that  they  do  not  care  to 
be  accused  of  courting  you;  and  secondly, 
your  new  interests  take  up  a  good  deal  of  the 
time  that  you  formerly  had  for  them.  Above 
all,  remember  that  your  actions  are  absolutely 
unrestricted.  It  is  up  to  you  to  make  the  ad- 
vances. If  a  crowd  of  you  boys  are  together 
and  a  "non-frat"  is  in  the  neighborhood,  draw 
him  into  your  crowd  by  a  friendly  word,  or  a 
healthy  slap  on  the  back,  by  the  way  of  a  good 
morning.  Do  not  wait  for  him  to  speak  first. 
Give  him  a  cue  so  that  he  may  know  that  he 
is  not  butting  in.  This  hint  I  give  to  you, 
my  boy,  because  you  can  save  many  a  deli- 
cately tempered  man  a  painful  moment;  and 
at  the  same  time  it  will  stamp  you  as  a  gentle- 
man. The  proper  attitude  in  this  matter  it  is 
very  difficult  for  a  freshman  to  acquire,  who 
immediately  on  entering  college  joins  a  Frater- 


[63] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

nity.  I  believe  I  know  what  I  am  talking 
about,  as  yours  truly  did  not  join  a  Society 
until  his  senior  year,  and  he  is  glad  of  it. 

Now  to  get  down  to  the  cold  material  side 
of  this  matter, — to  the  dollars  and  cents  side, 
as  the  writer  promised  to  do  in  one  of  his 
former  letters.  Tell  your  friends  that  all  the 
good  men  do  not  get  into  Frats,  and  that  some 
of  the  doubtful  ones  do.  It  pays  to  give  a 
fellow  the  glad  hand.  Remember,  that  it  is 
almost  as  essential  to  have  friends  in  college, 
as  when  you  get  out  of  college  into  the  struggle 
for  a  daily  existence.  Friends  in  college  will 
vote  when  the  class  elections  come  around; 
friends  will  back  the  college  team  of  which 
you  are  captain,  and  make  you  a  success. 
Friends  will  declare  you  the  most  popular  man 
in  college.  Friends  will  not  let  the  faculty 
suspend  you  when  you  foolishly  break  some 
rule;  and  finally, — friends  will  stand  by  you 
when  you  are  out  of  college  and  need  a  job! 
My  experience  is,  that  in  the  daily  scrap  to 

[  64  ]  ^ 


Third   Letter 


make  all  ends  meet,  and  fill  the  pay  envelope, 
Frats  are  entirely  forgotten.  It's  a  case  of 
friends  and  deliver  the  goods. 

Having  handed  you  that  lengthy  "do,"  your 
tutor  in  principles  will  give  one  "don't"  be- 
fore leaving  this  ever-interesting  subject  of 
college  Societies.  Are  you  ready?  Well,  do 
not  begin  to  consider  your  Fraternity  of  more 
importance  than  your  University.  The  minute 
you  put  college  activities  aside  for  those  of  the 
Fraternity,  the  secret  Society  becomes  a  dan- 
gerous undercurrent  against  college  spirit. 
Never  have  your  dinners,  conventions  or  other 
functions  at  a  time,  when  your  members 
should  be  at  practice  with  the  athletic  teams. 
Push  along  the  good  name  of  the  University 
first,  and  you  will  naturally  find  your  Frat  in 
its  proper  place,  to  wit:  the  front  line.  Stop 
pushing  and  it's  time  to  get  out  your  robes 
for  a  funeral. 

One  thing  strikes  me  about  your  last  epistle, 
my  dear  "freshy,"  and  that  is,  that  you  do  not 


[65] 


Are    You   G oing   to    College 

breathe  a  word  about  hazing.  I  am  willing  to 
bet  even  money,  that  they  have  had  you  on 
the  rack,  or  you  would  surely  have  been  telling 
us  about  the  funny  things  which  have  been 
handed  out  to  the  other  fellows.  Why  is  it 
called  "hazing"?  You  know,  that  it  never 
occurred  to  me  to  inquire  where  this  practice 
originated.  There  is  a  fine  chance  for  some 
freshman  to  do  a  little  historical  investigating 
in  connection  with  his  laboratory  course  in 
hazing.  No  doubt  by  this  time  you  can  tell 
us  very  vividly  how  it  feels  to  be  tossed  in  a 
blanket  by  a  wild  lot  of  Sophs, — especially 
when  they  do  not  care  whether  they  drop  you 
or  not.  And  the  seat  of  your  pants! — Why 
is  it,  I  wonder  that  a  strenuous  and  often- 
applied  dose  of  paddles, — on  the  part  of  the 
anatomy  which  Nature  has  provided  for  the 
training  of  bad  children, — seems  to  be  one  of 
the  approved  ways  of  instilling  into  a  fresh- 
man the  proper  amount  of  respect  for  upper 
classmen?    Possibly  it  is,  because  so  many  of 

[66] 


T hird   Letter 


our  sophomores  have  only  recently  been 
taught  to  obey  father,  by  a  similar  process  of 
dusting.  Well,  the  only  thing  to  do,  is  to  take 
it,  and  get  even  with  the  freshman  next  year. 
Of  course,  if  you  want  to  make  it  interesting 
for  someone  else  besides  the  sophomores,  then 
abide  your  chance  and  light  into  one  of  your 
inquisitors.  This  will  rank  you  ace  high  with 
the  seniors,  who  are  supposed  to  be  too  digni- 
fied to  do  any  hazing;  but  who  are  always 
hanging  around  to  see  the  fun.  Remembei, 
that  at  your  best,  you  will  only  be  able  to  get  in 
a  few  good  licks  before  you  will  be  promptly 
grabbed  by  an  overwhelming  bunch  of  sopho- 
mores. And  then, — yes,  then  it  means  more 
paddles.  These  bands  of  wild  indians,  called 
"Sophs,"  do  not  scout  around  singly  or  one 
by  one ;  but  like  the  real  red-skin  aborigines,  in 
"sixes  and  sevens"  they  pounce  on  a  fresh- 
man, or  two,  when  these  have  carelessly  wan- 
dered away  from  the  rest  of  their  caravan. 
Then  the  unfortunate  ones  are  put  through 


[67] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

the  "gauntlet"    (See  Cooper's  "Last  of  the 
Mohicans/'  page  123)  with  more  or  less  pain- 
ful  results.     A  second  thought  gives   me  a; 
"hunch";  why  could  the  modern  hazing  noti 
be  a  survival  of  the  old  pioneer  days?     But 
Dick,  I  give  you  this  flash  to  work  on  somei 
winter  day,  when  you  are  no  longer  a  fit  sub- 
ject in  the  laboratory  of  hazing. 

Now  the  trouble  with  you  freshmen  is,  Dick, 
that  you  have  no  organization.  You  hardly 
know  each  other,  and  further,  you  are  afraid 
to  make  a  mistake  and  jump  into  a  Senior  or 
Junior,  instead  of  a  Sophomore.  They  all 
look  alike  to  you,  but  there  is  really  a  very 
great  difference.  Of  course,  the  senior  class 
has  promised  the  faculty  that  they  will  dis- 
courage all  hazing  this  year.  They  had  to  do 
that,  or  one  of  the  Sophs  would  have  been 
fired  last  year.  But  a  little  underground 
study  of  human  nature,  will  reveal  to  you 
that  the  theory  of  most  seniors  is,  that  the 
easiest  way  to  break  up  hazing  is  to  fortify 

[68] 


Third   Letter 


the  freshman  class  against  any  attacks  on  the 
part  of  the  Sophomores.  This  theory  was 
advanced  by  one  of  our  ex-presidents,  when 
he  conceived  the  idea  that  the  best  assurance 
of  peace  is  to  prepare  for  war.  You  will  find 
a  few  bolder  seniors  always  ready  to  tutor  you 
how  to  get  the  freshmen  thoroughly  lined  up. 
Remember  that  there  are  two  adages  well 
known  to  all  fighting  men.  They  are:  "All 
Gaul  is  divided  into  three  parts/'  and  "In 
Unity  there  is  strength."  In  your  case  the 
three  parts  of  Gaul  are  the  Freshmen,  the 
Sophomores  and  the  Faculty.  Line  up  the  first 
part  against  the  second  part,  and  then  look 
out  that  the  Faculty  is  somewhere  else  when 
the  fight  is  about  to  begin.  I  was  present 
once  at  one  of  these  class  tilts,  when  every- 
body including  Juniors  and  Seniors  (the  sup- 
posed-to-be police),  became  so  thoroughly  in- 
terested in  how  the  Freshmen  were  wiping  up 
the  ground  with  the  Sophomores,  that  one 
gentleman  of  the  faculty  (who  had  wandered 


[69] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

too  near  the  line  of  skirmish),  was  suddenly 
mistaken  for  a  sophomore,  and  promptly  sat 
upon  by  several  Freshmen.  You  ask  me  what 
happened?  To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  did  not 
stop  to  see: — I  was  a  Senior! 

In  all  seriousness,  Dick,  I  know  nothing 
which  cuts  out  that  hazing,  on  the  part  of  the 
Sophomores,  quicker  than  a  well-organized 
attack  on  them,  by  the  freshman  class.  This 
is  easy  enough,  if  you  do  not  forget  that  there 
are  nearly  always  more  men  in  the  freshman 
class  than  in  the  Sophomore  one.  The  weed- 
ing out  process  has  not  begun  so  early  in  the 
college  year.  Your  banner  motto  must  be  "In 
Unity  there  is  Strength,"  and  your  battle  cry, 
"Let's  get  together  and  bump  them"!  Re- 
member, I  am  keeping  my  eye  on  the  evening 
paper  to  get  the  latest  reports. 

To  bring  this  hazing  and  bickering  between 
the  two  lower  classes  to  an  end,  and  thus 
allow  everyone  to  settle  down  to  study,  the 
practice  has  been  adopted  in  many  of  the  col- 

[70] 


Third   Letter 


leges,  of  having  one  rush  or  fight,  and  then 
calling  things  quits.  I  do  not  just  remember 
what  is  the  trick  at  Hastings  (please  tell  me 
the  next  time  you  write),  but  the  fight  for  the 
old  canon;  the  rush  at  the  bowl;  and  the 
various  cane  rushes,  not  to  speak  of  the  water 
contest  of  one  of  our  Western  colleges,  are 
fixtures  in  college  life.  These  mix-ups  are 
now  worked  out  on  a  plan  so  that  it  can  be 
officially  recorded  whether  the  Freshmen  or 
the  Sophomores  are  victorious.  The  Seniors 
are  generally  the  officials.  Most  of  these  fights 
or  rather  pulls  and  pushes,  are  harmless  and 
the  boys  get  off  with  a  black  eye  or  some  torn 
clothes.  But  as  I  do  not  know  what  you  are 
up  against  at  Hastings,  I  will  give  you  a 
warning  against  a  general  cane  rush.  By  a 
general  cane  rush,  I  mean  one  in  which  both 
the  entire  freshman  and  sophomore  classes 
participate.  Fortunately  that  kind  of  a  rush 
has  been  modified  in  most  of  the  colleges ;  but 
every  once  in  a  while  some  bright  Freshman 


[71] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

suggests  going  back  to  the  general  rush.  I  do 
not  want  you  to  be  one  of  these  who,  on 
account  of  inexperience,  would  make  such  a 
proposal;  hence  these  lines. 

The  whole  object  of  a  cane  rush,  is  for  each 
of  the  two  classes  to  try  to  get  as  many  hands 
as  possible  on  a  cane,  and  keep  them  there 
until  time  is  up.  The  class  with  the  highest 
number  of  hands  on  the  cane,  wins.  Formerly 
each  class  used  to  line  up  about  five  yards 
from  its  representative,  who  held  the  cane. 
That  gave  each  class  five  yards  to  travel  be- 
fore the  cane  was  reached.  Time-keepers 
were  appointed,  and  when  the  Senior,  who 
had  been  selected  as  official,  blew  a  whistle, 
the  two  masses  of  humanity  made  a  rush  for 
the  cane,  which  was  held  by  two  men,  each 
representing  a  class.  The  rules  of  the  game 
allowed  that  the  men  of  one  class  could  push 
and  pull  their  opponents  away  from  the  cane. 
At  the  end  of  five  minutes  the  class  who  had 
the  most  hands  on  the  coveted  stick,  won. 

[73] 


Third   Letter 


This  description  may  not  sound  awe-inspiring, 
but  after  the  first  onslaught,  the  centre  men 
were  invariably  thrown  on  the  ground  in  this 
free-for-all  fight  to  hold  on.  Then  the  out- 
siders piled  on  top  in  their  efforts  to  get  at 
the  cane,  which  they  hoped  to  reach  by  putting 
their  arms  through  some  crevice.  Have  you 
ever  been  on  the  bottom  of  one  of  those  old 
mass  plays  when  everything  went  through 
right  tackle,  only  to  meet  the  entire  team  of 
the  opponent  coming  the  other  way?  No? 
Well  Dick,  I  am  sorry,  because  that  was  just 
about  as  much  like  a  cane  rush  as  a  ladies* 
afternoon  pink  tea  resembles  a  Jeffries-and- 
Johnson  prize  fight.  I  can  answer  for  you 
that  you  would  have  called  "down"  with  that 
all-the-wind-knocked-out  squeak,  immediately 
after  you  had  touched  the  ground  on  one  of 
those  tackle  plays.  Just  imagine  your  agony 
then,  if  you  had  been  compelled  to  stay  under 
those  twenty-two  men  for  five  minutes !  Now, 
have  you  got  that? — ^Then  multiply  by  ten, 


[73] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

and  you  will  get  the  pressure  per  square  inch 
which  the  heroes  on  the  bottom  of  a  general 
cane  rush  had  to  standi  Another  thing  that 
made  it  worse,  was  that  in  falling,  by  reason 
of  the  pressure  on  all  sides,  the  men  were 
unable  to  get  themselves  in  an  uncramped 
position.  The  time  of  five  minutes  was  en- 
tirely too  long,  and  of  no  avail  to  either  class, 
as  very  few  hands  change  after  the  centre 
men  are  thrown,  or  have  thrown  themselves 
to  the  ground.  Fortunately,  I  was  never 
present  at  any  of  the  old  cane  rushes,  when 
men  were  suffocated  outright.  But  I  have 
helped  to  untangle  the  mass  after  the  whistle 
has  blown;  and  found  men  on  the  bottom  of 
the  pile  unconscious,  still  clinging  to  that  cane. 
Others,  had  their  hands  so  gripped  on  the 
cane,  that  they  were  sort-of  paralyzed,  and  it 
took  a  good  deal  of  rubbing  before  the  fingers 
could  be  released.  We  also  have  found  a  few 
broken  ribs  and  ankles,  but  they  do  not  count 
in  college.     So,  gradually,  the  time  length  of 

[74] 


Third   Letter 


the  cane  rush  was  modified  to  about  one 
minute.  This,  you  will  find,  is  ample  time  to 
give  a  fair  supremacy  to  one  side  or  the  other. 
Further,  the  classes  now  generally  pick  out 
about  twenty  men  on  a  side,  to  represent  them 
in  the  contest.  Also,  they  are  lined  up  farther 
away  from  the  centre  men,  so  as  to  reduce 
the  sudden  impact.  The  speedy  men  get  to 
the  cane  first ;  thus  the  pile  builds  up  gradually. 
So  you  see  that  a  cane-rush  has  also  developed 
along  scientific  lines. 

Now,  Richard,  if  Hastings  is  booked  for  a 
cane  rush  this  fall,  and  some  bright  young, 
inexperienced  supposed-to-be  harmless  fresh- 
man thinks  that  one  minute  is  not  long  enough 
for  a  cane  rush,  then  hand  him  a  few  of  the 
above  "dope."  If  that  will  not  act  as  a  proper 
sedative  for  his  overbubbling  college  enthu- 
siasm, then  tell  him  for  me,  "it  does  not  pay." 
If  he  asks  why,  answer  thou,  "because  the  men 
who  are  picked  for  a  cane  rush,  always  in- 
clude the  athletes  of  the  classes;  and  a  few 


[75] 


Are    You   Going   to   College. 

broken  ankles,  if  nothing  worse,  may  put  one 
or  more  of  your  college  teams  out  of  the  run- 
ning for  the  championship." 

Just  as  I  had  dipped  my  pen  in  the  ink  to 
round  out  my  above  remarks,  my  eyes  fell  on 
a  picture  which  is  hanging  over  my  desk.  A 
friend  of  mine  took  it  just  after  the  Army  and 
Navy  foot-ball  game  several  years  ago.  By 
the  way,  it  was  that  game  when  Charley  Daly 
played  the  whole  game  for  Army.  Yes,  we 
had  made  the  trip  from  New  York  in  a  private 
car ;  there  were  a  half-dozen  men  and  as  many 
girls.  The  reason  I  mention  this,  is  that  some 
of  these  girls  were  "fem  semmes."  Exactly, 
that  is  the  expression,  "fem  semmes."  Pos- 
sibly you  have  not  met  this  kind  before,  so  I 
will  drop  the  college  slang,  and  introduce  them 
as  girls  belonging  to  a  female  seminary.  Why 
is  it,  that  fate  always  seems  to  place  a  female 
seminary  just  within  walking  distance  of  a 
men's  college  ?  Do  not  be  afraid,  Dick,  if  you 
happen  to  be  a  ladies*  man,  that  I  am  going 

[76] 


Third   Letter 


to  warn  you  to  stay  away  from  a  place  where 
a  peach  crop  is  being  rounded  out  to  be 
shipped  into  the  world.  Not  on  your  life! 
I  have  sense  enough  to  know  it  is  easier  to 
turn  back  Niagara  Falls  than  to  keep  the 
average  youngster  from  having  a  look  into  a 
female  seminary.  As  a  friend  of  mine  said 
not  long  ago:  "It  simply  ain't  no  use."  Of 
course,  some  night  you  will  make  your  way 
over  that  three  miles  between  Hastings  and 
Chester  Seminary.  You  will  try  to  attract 
some  of  the  girls  to  the  windows  by  whistling. 
Probably  with  success,  but  if  you  fail  in  the 
first  half  hour,  then  send  somebody  back  to 
college  for  a  mandolin.  When  he  has  walked 
three  miles  going  and  three  miles  coming,  then 
strike  up  a  few  notes  on  the  instrument;  this 
will  have  the  magical  effect.  A  serenade  al- 
ways brings  results.  It  did  *way  back  in 
Shakespeare's  time,  when  the  lovers  knew  how 
to  play  a  mandolin,  and  it  does  now  when  you 
boys  only  try  to  play  it.     Yes!  the  village 

[77] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

clock  will  be  striking  eleven,  when  a  window 
opens  just  an  inch  and  the  following  note  is 
dropped  at  your  feet :  "Dear  Boys : .  Please 
stop  that  noise;  Mrs.  Gray,  the  chaperone  is 
watching  us  too  closely.  Will  meet  you  at 
the  bridge  tomorrow  at  four."  No  signature. 
How  interesting!  You  will  then  start  home 
over  those  three  miles  and  vote  your  evening 
a  thorough  success.  Total  result:  six  miles 
for  some;  twelve  miles  for  the  fellow  who 
went  after  the  mandolin ;  one  sweet  note,  and 
no  prepared  lectures  for  the  next  day  for  any- 
body.— Yes,  but  it  was  a  romance;  it  was 
an  experience,  the  kind  that  sounds  fine  to 
younger  brothers  and  cousins  when  you  get 
home  for  the  Christmas  holidays. 

Now  the  interesting  thing  about  all  this  is, 
that  one  day  a  learned  man,  I  believe  it  was 
William  Penn,  got  the  idea  that  the  best  way 
to  keep  the  boys  at  college,  and  not  have  them 
out  so  late,  would  be  to  bring  the  girls  right 
where  they  would  see  them  all  day  long. 
Hence,  we  have  co-education. 
[78] 


Third   Letter 


Never  having  attended  a  co-educational  in- 
stitution, I  am  not  in  a  position  to  say  whether 
they  are  of  a  social  or  economic  advantage. 
Further,  all  of  my  inquiries  have  borne  little 
fruit.  One  thing  I  do  know,  however,  and 
that  is  that  the  very  men  who  have  told  me 
that  it  is  a  nuisance  to  have  girls  in  the  same 
college,  and  that  they  never  bothered  about 
them,  have  been  the  very  ones  who  have  mar- 
ried a  girl  that  they  have  met  in  college. 

Dick,  there  is  no  harm  in  a  "fem  semme," 
provided  she  is  a  nice  girl  and  most  of  them 
are ;  but  a  hint  that  preparing  your  studies  for 
the  next  day  should  be  rule,  and  girls  the  ex- 
ception, is  not  exactly  out  of  place  here.  You 
also  should  know  that  some  girls,  or  some 
that  were  girls,  stay  around  a  college  town  a 
long  while.  These  are  not  fem  semmes  any 
more,  although  they  may  have  been.  Unfor- 
tunately for  them,  they  seem  to  have  become 
fixtures  in  the  place,  even  though  they  arc 
perfectly  willing  to  move  away  under  the  pro- 


[79] 


Are    You    Going   to   College 

tecting  arms  of  some  Senior.  I  mention  this 
by  way  of  introduction  so  as  to  tell  you  in  a 
few  words,  before  closing  tonight,  what  hap- 
pened to  a  son  of  a  dear  friend  of  mine.  He, 
the  boy,  started  off  to  college  and  all  ran 
smoothly  until  he  went  back  for  his  sopho- 
more year.  James,  we  will  call  him  for  a 
better  name,  began  writing  home  in  the  fall 
of  his  second  year,  about  a  wonderful  girl  he 
had  met  in  the  college  town.  He  admitted  that 
he  had  seen  her  during  his  freshman  year, 
but  now  he  was  beginning  to  realize  that  she 
was  the  best  ever.  Then  letters  followed  to 
father  to  the  tune  of  "I  feel  like  stopping 
college  and  getting  to  work."  Father,  who 
had  also  been  to  the  same  college,  began  to  sit 
up  and  take  notice.  He  thought  matters  were 
getting  too  hot  for  comfort,  but  he  still  tried 
to  persuade  the  boy  to  finish  his  college  course. 
Finally,  when  his  efforts  were  about  ex- 
hausted, father  wrote  to  James  that  "if  you 
must  you  must,  but  please  write  me  all  about 

[80] 


Third  Letter 


the  girl  and  who  she  is.*'  The  response  was 
full  with  details.  Father  read  the  letter  over 
several  times  very  carefully,  and  then  with  a 
sigh  of  relief  wrote  as  follows: 

*'Dear  James  : 

I  have  received  yours  of  the in- 
stant, and  read  the  same  with  great  care, 
and  find  to  my  surprise,  that  the  lady 
you  mention  is  the  same  girl  which  I 
almost  fell  in  love  with,  when  I  was  at 
college.  Let  me  know  when  you  are  ready 
to  start  for  home. 

Your  Loving  Father." 

Needless  for  me  to  say,  Dick,  that  James 
finished  his  college  course. 

In  conclusion,  I  want  to  thank  you  for  your 
kind  invitation  to  see  one  of  the  large  games 
in  November.    I  think  I  can  make  it. 
With  best  regards. 
Yours  sincerely, 

Harold  James. 

[81] 


October  28th. 

SEAR  DICK: — It  was  a  surprise  to  me 
to  hear  from  you  so  soon  after  my 
last  letter.  But  you  are  right  in  saying 
that  you  want  to  begin  properly  posted  and, 
therefore,  must  ask  me  questions  now.  You 
excuse  yourself  for  taking  up  so  much  of  my 
time;  no  excuses  necessary,  my  boy.  Mrs.  J. 
and  myself  often  decide  on  a  quiet  evening 
at  home  together,  and  then  I,  after  being 
comfortably  fixed  in  an  arm-chair,  take  down 
my  pen  and  just  scribble. 

In  answering  your  queries,  and  framing  up 
my  hints,  I  become  so  interested  as  to  forget 
all  about  business  cares.  As  I  go  along,  I 
gradually  find  myself  alongside  of  you  in  col- 
lege. Some  of  the  professional  men  I  know 
give  their  minds  a  rest  by  reading  several 

[82] 


Fourth    Letter 


trashy  novels  in  succession.  Every  person 
according  to  his  inclination, — mine  at  present, 
is  chatting  with  you. 

So  you  have  never  taken  part  in  athletics, 
and  you  do  not  know  whether  to  begin  now. 
The  boys  have  all  been,  for  several  weeks, 
suggesting  that  you  ought  to  try  for  one  team 
or  for  another.  Further,  all  of  them  seem 
to  think  that  the  particular  game  at  which 
they  have  made  a  success,  is  the  best  sport 
to  play.  I  used  to  think  the  same  way,  Dick, 
but  after  I  had  taken  a  turn  at  nearly  all  of 
them  (not  all,  seriously,  however)  I  came  to 
the  decision  that  a  man  can  become  interested 
in  almost  any  game.  Some  of  them  are  more 
strenuous  than  others,  but  as  someone  must 
win,  there  is  spice  in  the  whole  list  of  them 
from  "pitching  nickels"  to  "running  quarters 
under  fifty  seconds."  Of  course,  some  sports 
are  more  suitable  to  one  person  than  to  anoth- 
er- You  know  my  favorite  one,  but  as  my 
advice  is  to  be  unbiased,  it  would  be  improper 


[83] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

for  me  to  discuss  the  merits  of  the  respective 
sports. 

By  all  means  go  in  for  some  form  of  ath- 
letics. If  you  have  never  tried,  you  do  not 
know  whether  you  can  deliver  the  goods  or 
not.  Further,  athletics  belong  to  a  well- 
rounded  college  education.  There  are  things 
which  you  can  learn  on  the  athletic  field, 
which  you  can  never  even  meet  with  in  the 
classroom.  First  you  learn  to  obey.  By  that 
I  mean  you  are  taught  discipline.  Some  great 
general  said,  "No  man  is  fit  to  command  until 
he  has  learned  to  obey."  Well,  if  you  are 
going  into  commercial  life,  you  certainly  ex- 
pect to  reach  the  point  some  day  when  you 
will  have  men  under  your  control.  Now  is 
the  time,  while  at  play,  to  learn  how  to  be  a 
good  executive.  Then  there  will  be  no  fear 
of  strikes  in  Dick  Dawson's  plant,  for  he 
knows  how  to  handle  his  men. 

Also,  you  must  not  forget  the  fact  that 
"all  work  and  no  play  makes  Dick  a  dull  boy." 

[84] 


Fourth    Letter 


You  cannot  do  your  best  work  when  you  do 
not  keep  yourself  in  good  physical  shape. 
Your  blood  must  circulate  so  as  to  keep  your 
gray  matter  up  to  a  keen  standard.  I  am  not 
afraid,  Richard,  that  you  will  not  get  some 
exercise;  because  all  up-to-date  colleges  now 
have  a  prescribed  course  in  physical  culture. 
That  is  good  in  its  way,  but  it  lacks  the  ele- 
ment of  contest  which  keeps  a  fellow  inter- 
ested. 

Another  very  potent  reason  why  I  advocate 
athletics,  is  that  they  have  a  national  signi- 
ficance- If  my  recollection  serves  me  cor- 
rectly, it  was  General  Wellington  who  said: 
"The  battle  of  Waterloo  was  won  on  the 
football  field  at  Eton."  Their  national  sig- 
nificance was  brought  home  to  me  most 
strongly  when  not  so  many  years  ago,  I  heard 
a  lecture  on  the  Spanish  War.  The  lecturer 
showed  us  a  picture  in  which  were  grouped 
the  men  who  had  led  our  troops  through  the 
Cuban  campaign.     The  majority  of  them  bore 

[85] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

familiar  names  as  athletic  generals.  It  was 
only  a  logical  step  from  athletic  sports  to  the 
grim  sport  of  war.  They  had  learned  to  han- 
dle men  at  play ;  the  experience  had  stood  by 
them  when  the  nation  called  for  troops  and 
commanders. 

We  do  not  need  too  large  a  standing  army, 
Dick,  our  Navy  and  our  geographical  posi- 
tion saves  us  from  that.  But  we  should  have 
our  young  men  trained  to  obey,  so  that  when 
the  time  comes  and  we  must  have  an  army, 
the  good,  old  regulars  with  the  state  militia 
as  a  nucleus,  can  be  expanded  into  an  effici- 
ent fighting  body. 

A  captain  in  the  militia, — and  by  the  way, 
an  old  athlete  asked  me  just  before  the  late 
Mexican  troubles,  "What  do  you  think  of 
having  every  young  man  go  through  a  course 
of  military  training,  say  for  three  months?" 
At  first  I  laughed  at  him  and  told  him  that 
our  people  would  not  stand  for  a  standing 
army  like  those  of  the  European  countries. 

[86] 


Fourth   Letter 


"Think  it  over,"  he  said,  and  I  did.  The 
result  was,  that  I  now  believe  it  would  be 
good  for  every  young  man  to  have  a  little 
touch  of  discipline  instilled  into  his  make-up, 
and  also  to  learn  to  handle  a  rifle.  This  mod- 
erate training  would  be  a  great  help  as  a 
national  defense,  and  yet,  our  country  would 
not  be  threatened  with  the  unhealthy  social 
supremacy  of  the  military  set,  which  is  bound 
to  grow  up  with  a  standing  army.  Nor  would 
the  three  months'  training  in  any  way  harm 
a  young  man's  business  or  professional  pros- 
pects. When  younger,  I  used  to  think  that 
in  case  of  war,  our  men  could  leave  their 
plows  to  flock  around  the  flag  and  put  our 
foe  to  flight.  In  the  last  ten  years  my  obser- 
vations have  been  that,  all  things  being  equal, 
a  machine,  whether  it  be  an  athletic,  a  polit- 
ical or  a  military  one,  if  instilled  with  the 
proper  spirit, — can  win  nine  out  of  ten  times 
from  an  untrained  aggregation.  So  at  present, 
as  we  have  no  military  training,  college  ath- 


[87] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

letics  must  in  a  way,  do  for  us  what  the 
former  does  for  the  youths  of  Europe. 

When  it  comes  to  picking  the  sport  for  you, 
I  guess  the  best  way  to  do,  is  to  get  at  it  by 
the  process  of  elimination.  Now  I  know, 
although  you  have  written  nothing  about  it, 
that  you  naturally  incline  to  what  is  known 
as  one  of  the  major  sports  in  college.  In  this 
column,  according  to  the  college  you  attend, 
you  will  find:  Foot-ball,  Track  Athletics; 
Base-ball ;  Lacrosse  and  Rowing.  If  you  ask 
why  I  know  it,  then  I  simply  respond,  "Be- 
cause nine  out  of  every  ten  men  want  to  be 
where  the  crowds  are,  and  they  are  with  the 
major  sports."  I  do  not  blame  you;  but  re- 
member it  is  harder  to  make  good  on  a  team 
where  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  are  trying 
to  squeeze  into  never  more  than  twelve  posi- 
tions, than  on  an  aggregation  where  only  fifty 
or  less  are  in  the  squad.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  shows  the  proper  spirit  for  a  man  to  be 
willing  to  buck  up  against  large  odds.     Then 

[88] 


Fourth    Letter 


when  he  comes  through  the  winner,  he  can 
spell  it  with  a  large  W. 

My  advise  for  the  treatment  of  your  par- 
ticular case,  is  to  tackle  the  first  sport  on  the 
schedule.  If  you  are  absolutely  disqualified 
for  that  by  the  coaches,  then  try  some  other 
sport;  but  for  heaven's  sake,  do  not  get  the 
idea  in  the  first  few  practices,  that  you  are 
absolutely  no  good.  Do  not  try  one  sport  a 
month,  and  then  switch  over  to  another,  just 
like  some  of  the  men  do  when  they  get  out  into 
the  business  world.  They  have  not  the  qual- 
ity to  stick  at  it.  I  have  seen  men  jump  from 
law,  to  medicine,  to  business  in  as  many  years, 
and  wonder  why  they  did  not  get  along  in 
any  line.  Remember,  what  was  said  in  an 
earlier  letter  about  the  four  years  of  college 
being  like  a  little  world  in  itself.  The  char- 
acteristics and  experience  that  bring  success 
in  college,  are  the  same  that  must  be  used  in 
the  fight  for  a  living  when  you  get  out.  You 
must  begin  all  over  again,  and  work  your  way 


[89] 


Are    You    Going    to    College 

through  to  the  top.  Of  course,  the  odds  are 
greater  against  you  later  on,  but  the  second 
fight  is  always  easier  than  the  first. 

Before  giving  you  some  idea  of  how  to  be 
a  candidate  for  a  team,  I  must  warn  you 
against  taking  part  in  any  sport  as  strenuous 
as  foot-ball,  without  having  subjected  your- 
self to  a  medical  examination.  That  may  seem 
superfluous  to  you,  but  you  owe  it  to  your- 
self, and  to  your  college  team  to  take  a  test. 
If  students  insist  on  taking  part  in  a  sport 
when  they  are  physically  unable  to  stand 
the  strain,  then  we  will  have  occasional  fatal- 
ities. Please  do  not,  however,  run  to  your 
family  physician,  because  he  has  probably 
never  seen  much  of  athletics,  and  is,  there- 
fore, too  careful  making  you  believe,  from  the 
start,  that  you  are  an  invalid.  Most  of  our 
large  colleges  now  have  a  medical  advisor, 
who  was  or  should  have  been  an  athlete  him- 
self. His  youthful  desire  to  win  games  has 
been  properly  tempered  by  his  medical  exper- 

[90] 


Fourth   Letter 


ience.  In  a  word,  he  knows  when  you  can 
play,  even  if  he  does  discover  some  thumping 
somewhere.  He  disqualifies  extreme  cases 
from  participating  in  violent  games,  and  sug- 
gests something  moderate  to  build  up  a  youth 
without  knocking  out  his  nerve  from  the 
start,  by  putting  him  on  the  total  disability 
list. 

I  might  say  in  passing,  Dick,  that  a  coach 
must  also  know  what  the  constitution  of  each 
man  can  stand.  I,  for  myself,  refuse  to  drive 
a  man  to  the  limit,  if  I  have  not  the  O.  K.  of 
a  medical  expert.  This  business  of  winning 
games  at  all  costs  is  wrong.  At  the  same 
time,  consider  the  temptation  a  professional 
coach  is  under  to  do  this  very  thing.  If  he 
does  not  win  this  year,  it  may  mean  no  job 
for  him  next  year. 

After  you  have  passed  your  medical  exam- 
ination, inform  the  captain  of  the  team,  which 
you  are  going  to  try  for,  that  you  would  like 
him  to  put  you  down  as  a  candidate.     Then 


[91] 


Are    You   Going   to    College 

follow  instructions  closely,  and  begin  to  think. 
By  that  I  mean  whenever  the  coach  gives  you 
a  hint,  do  not  try  to  follow  his  instruction 
blindly;  but  figure  out  "why"  he  told  you  to 
do  a  certain  thing,  and  "how"  he  told  you  to 
do  it.  As  soon  as  you  have  had  on  your  uni- 
form a  day  or  two,  buy  yourself  the  latest  set 
of  rules  covering  the  sport  you  want  to  learn, 
and  thoroughly  familiarize  yourself  with  them. 
You  will  be  surprised,  Dick,  to  find  how  many 
boys  at  college  try  for  a  team,  and  have  never 
seen  a  copy  of  the  rules-  It  is  a  case  of  hit  or 
miss  with  them,  they  are  never  absolutely 
sure  whether  they  are  right. 

When  you  have  studied  over  a  play  and 
cannot  understand  it,  do  not  hesitate  to  go  to 
your  coach  or  captain  and  ask  for  an  explan- 
ation. Either  one  will  be  only  too  glad  to 
assist  you,  because  experience  has  taught  them 
that  to  have  team-work,  it  is  essential  for  ev- 
ery player  in  the  squad  to  thoroughly  under- 
stand each  move. 

[92] 


Fourth    Letter 


I 


If  at  any  time,  Dick,  you  get  the  idea  that 
you  are  not  getting  a  fair  show  for  the  team, 
then  do  not  give  up  in  disgust,  or  go  around 
among  your  friends  and  begin  to  talk  about 
the  coach  and  the  captain  playing  favorites. 
You  will  always  find  a  minority  which  will 
pat  you  on  the  back,  and  tell  you  that  you  are 
a  much  wronged  man.  These  fellows,  take  it 
from  me,  have  never  gotten  in  very  close 
touch  with  the  men  who  are  running  the  team, 
and,  therefore,  do  not  know  what  reason  the 
powers  in  being  have  for  preferring  one  man 
over  another  Whenever  that  not-getting-a- 
show  bug  begins  to  tickle  you,  then  wait  for  a 
chance  when  the  coach  is  not  too  busy,  and 
get  next  to  him  for  a  heart-to-heart  talk.  Al- 
ways give  the  captain  and  the  coach  a  chance 
before  you  begin  to  express  yourself  adverse- 
ly to  them.  My  observation,  in  and  out  of 
college,  has  been  that  a  great  deal  of  worry 
and  useless  trouble  is  caused  by  people  going 
off  half  cocked  and  drawing  unwarranted  con- 


[93] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

elusions.  If  folks  would  not  misunderstand 
each  other,  my  what  a  happy  lot  we  would 
all  be!  Have  a  frank  talk  with  your  coach 
and  in  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  times,  he 
can  tell  you  exactly  why  the  other  fellow  is 
pushing  you  aside  and  slipping  by.  If  you 
will  only  consider  for  a  minute,  you  will  see 
that  a  coach  would  be  cutting  off  his  nose  to 
spite  his  face,  if  he  did  not  play  fair.  A 
coach  must  win.  Can  you  possibly  conceive 
any  easier  or  more  logical  way  for  him  to  turn 
out  a  successful  team,  than  by  using  the  best 
players?  If  your  coach  has  had  a  record  of 
winning  teams,  you  can  put  it  down  as  a 
certainty  that  he  picks  fair. 

The  trouble  seems  to  be  that  a  coach  can- 
not in  justice  to  his  team,  or  has  not  always 
the  time  to  make  public  why  one  man  is  pre- 
ferred to  another  by  him.  You  see,  Dick,  a 
man  may  be  a  star,  and  the  minute  you  turn 
him  loose,  he  may  spoil  all  team  play.  Another 
example   is,   that  the  coach  may  have  two 

[94] 


Fourth    Letter 


young  players  on  the  side  lines,  both  of  them 
equally  good  men;  when  the  time  comes,  he 
will  pick  one  man  without  hesitation,  and  send 
him  into  the  fight.  The  result  may  be  instant 
uproar  by  fellow  members  of  a  Fraternity  that 
their  man,  being  an  older  class-man,  should 
have  a  chance.  If  you  were  to  saunter  around 
to  the  coach's  room  that  evening  for  a  little 
chat  about  the  game,  and  you  would  finally 
open  up  with :  "Say,  Jack,  please  tell  me  why 
you  put  Wei  ford  and  not  Reddy  in  the  game 
this  afternoon  ?  You  told  me  only  last  week 
that  you  did  not  know  which  was  the  better 
man;"  the  reply  that  you  would  get  would 
probably  be  "Confidentially,  Dick,  as  far  as 
playing  goes,  there  is  nothing  to  choose  be- 
tween them;  but  in  the  last  five  practices  I 
had  to  resort  to  a  coach's  last  card,  I  began 
to  watch,  not  so  much  the  new  players,  as 
to  what  the  effect  on  the  other  members  of 
the  team  was,  when  either  Welford  or  Reddy 
was  sent  into  the  line-up.     I  quickly  discov- 


[95  1 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

ered  that  every  time  that  I  took  Reddy  out 
and  put  Welford  in,  every  man  on  that  team 
took  a  brace.  An  air  of  "now-let's-get-busy" 
settled  over  the  boys.  Why  Welford  has 
that  effect,  the  Lord  only  knows, — I  don't; 
but  I  know  it's  there."  If  he  had  spread 
this  fact  broadcast,  the  chances  are  that  the 
team  might  have  become  self-conscious  and 
spoilt  this  effect  at  a  critical  point  in  the  game. 
The  great  trouble  with  many  tyro  athletes 
is,  that  they  expect  to  make  the  team  the  first 
year.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  that  very 
few  men  become  proficient  in  a  sport  until 
their  third  year  at  it.  Thus,  if  they  get  into 
some  of  the  games  in  their  second  season,  they 
ought  to  be  very  much  pleased.  Further,  do 
not  get  cold  feet  when  you  hear  about  the 
various  prep  school  stars  which  are  out  for 
your  team.  The  boys  from  Pauls  School, 
Penn  Charter,  Exeter,  Andovcr,  Lawrence- 
ville  and  plenty  of  other  good  schools,  have  a 
good  athletic  training,  but  many  of  them  fall 

[  96  ] 


Fourth   Letter 


by  the  wayside  when  they  get  into  big  com- 
pany. The  reason  for  this  is,  that  their  vital- 
ity is  pumped  out  of  them  before  they  reach 
college.  After  they  get  in,  they  work  along 
trying  to  improve  or  at  least  measure  up  to 
their  old  form,  but  the  will  is  stronger  than 
the  body.  My  firm  opinion  is,  that  the  college 
world  looses  a  great  many  "world-beaters"  be- 
cause they  were  not  ripe  before  they  were 
pushed  to  the  limit.  The  average  boy  needs 
all  his  strength  to  carry  him  safely  througli 
those  years  from  sixteen  to  nineteen.  Many 
of  them  shoot  up  like  bean  poles,  and  a  little 
exercise  goes  a  long  way.  Let  them  store  up 
reserve  force,  and  then  when  they  get  into 
college,  they  can  turn  it  loose,  with  the  best 
of  them.  But  here  again,  we  run  up  against 
the  unmindful  record  producing  coach.  I 
suppose  the  most  damage  in  this  direction  is 
done  in  the  case  of  Track  Athletics.  On  the 
track  each  boy  has  the  responsibility  thrown  on 
himself  alone.     He  cannot  divide  the  work 


[97] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

with  his  team-mates ;  he  must  do  all  the  work 
after  he  starts  in  a  race,  even  though  he  faints 
doing  it.  Public  opinion  will  not  allow  him 
to  shirk.  On  the  other  hand,  in  a  game  the 
heavy  work  is  divided.  How  often  do  you 
see  a  man  faint  in  a  team  sport  from  over- 
exertion ?  Hardly  ever, — yes  in  one,  and  that 
is  rowing.  If  one  man  eases  up  a  bit,  the 
machine  is  out  of  gear.  He  cannot  stop. 
Dick,  I  am  no  Molly-coddle, — I  have  been  in 
some  stiff  contests  myself,  but  nobody,  I  do 
not  care  who  it  is,  can  convince  me  that  any 
man,  young  or  old,  should  be  driven  to  the 
limit  in  an  athletic  sport,  when  that  limit 
means  fainting,  or  total  exhaustion.  If  a  man 
is  not  strong  enough  to  finish  a  quarter  on  his 
feet,  or  sit  up  in  a  boat  at  the  end  of  a  race, 
he  should  not  be  allowed  to  compete. 

Of  course,  a  prep-school  boy  should  have 
his  exercise.  He  can  run  his  boys'  races, 
but  this  competition  between  institutions 
should  not  be  so  general.     Should  a  boy  of 

[98] 


Fourth   Letter 


mine  show  unusual  form  and  speed  at  some 
sport,  I  would  develop  him  gradually,  and 
allow  him  to  compete  in  one  or  two  events  in 
a  year,  until  he  reached  college.  Then  I 
would  let  him  go  right  to  the  front,  backed  up 
with  plenty  of  reserve  energy. 

So,  Richard,  you  will  find  that  some  of 
these  stars  will  be  compelled  to  make  room 
for  you,  if  you  are  made  of  the  right  stuff. 
Another  thing  in  your  favor,  is  that  many 
prep-school  athletes,  who  have  never  had  sys- 
tematic training,  have  picked  up  bad  habits  in 
form  which  it  is  very  difficult  for  them  to  lay 
aside.  The  man  who  coaches  you  can  take 
you  right  through  in  the  most  approved  style, 
without  trying  to  break  down  a  whole  lot 
of  things  before  he  can  start  to  build  up.  I 
say  trying,  because  some  bad  habits  are  so 
rooted  that  they  cannot  be  corrected. 

Should  my  freshman  make  a  good  showing 
at  foot-ball,  I  hope  he  will  not  get  athletic 
crazy,   and   try   every   sport   on   the  college 


[99] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

schedule-  It  is  all  right  for  you  to  try  one  in 
the  fall  and  another  in  the  spring;  but  when 
you  connect  up  the  whole  year  round  with 
competitive  foot-ball,  track,  base-ball  and 
track  again  in  the  summer,  you  will  be  pumped 
out  when  you  reach  your  third  year.  Then 
we  will  hear  something  like  this:  "Isn't  it 
funny  about  Dick  Dawson,  he  hasn't  run  a 
good  quarter  since  his  sophomore  year."  Of 
course  not,  who  can  go  from  one  strenuous 
college  sport  to  another,  and  revive  over- 
night? Nervous  tension  and  training  as  a 
steady  diet  will  put  anybody  to  the  bad.  And 
take  it  from  me,  that  the  nervous  tension  be- 
fore a  Yale  and  Princeton  foot-ball  game,  or 
the  Poughkeepsie  boat  races,  is  "some  ten- 
sion." Why  I  have  seen  men  so  nervous  an 
hour  before  big  contests,  that  they  can  hardly 
sit  still.  That  is  when  they  lose  weight.  Four 
pounds  during  a  large  game  is  a  common 
occurrence ;  but  they  all  get  it  back  in  a  couple 
of  days.  No,  this  weight  is  not  lost  by 
[100] 


F ourth    Letter*  '^ 


reason  of  the  physical  exercise;  the  truth  is, 
that  the  average  practice  is  more  strenuous 
than  a  game;  but  the  uncertainty  of  winning 
or  losing,  is  the  strain.  In  short,  an  athlete 
must  give  his  body  and  mind  time  to  thor- 
oughly rest  and  recuperate  after  he  has  been 
through  a  season  of  any  sport.  He  must 
get  away  from  a  training  diet  and  not  think 
athletics.  Foot-ball  season  ends  by  the  last 
week  in  November,  so  if  you  desire  another, 
any  one  of  the  spring  sports  would  be  in  order 
provided  that  you  do  not  begin  to  practice 
too  early.  Then,  in  the  summer,  a  friendly 
game  of  tennis,  or  a  little  base-ball  match,  not 
to  speak  of  a  swim,  will  do  no  harm,  so  long 
as  you  do  not  compete  for  some  champion- 
ship, and  do  not  put  yourself  on  a  training 
diet.  This  course  of  sports  will  keep  you  in 
the  highest  state  of  efficiency,  while  in  college, 
without  making  you  a  dish-rag  and  ungerm 
proof  when  you  leave  the  protecting  wing  of 
your  Alma  Mater. 

[101] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

This  desire  on  the  part  of  a  lot  of  young 
athletes,  to  go  into  every  competition,  is  often 
cultivated  by  the  fact  that  they  measure  their 
triumphs  by  the  number  of  medals  or  prizes 
that  they  win,  rather  than  by  the  quality  of 
their  achievments.  What  college  man  would 
not  prefer  to  take  one  first  place  in  "The  Inter- 
collegiates,"  than  to  win  fifty  firsts  in  these 
two  by  twice  meets  around  his  home  town? 
This  peculiar  species  of  track  man  who  tries 
to  own  all  the  prizes  in  sight,  is  more  partic- 
ularly known  as  a  "Pot  Hunter."  I  suppose 
the  easiest  way  to  get  rid  of  this  individual  in 
the  present  and  thus  make  him  shortly  a  thing 
of  the  past,  would  be  for  all  clubs  and  insti- 
tutions of  learning,  which  give  track  meets, 
to  only  indicate  first,  second  and  third  places 
by  different  colored  ribbons.  But  as  our 
college  boy  is  a  materialistic  being  (for  the 
purpose  of  our  letter),  I  cannot,  Dick,  very 
seriously  advocate  this  innovation.  I  am 
afraid  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  prove  to  your 

[102] 


Fourth    Letter 


friends'  satisfaction,  that  it  will  pay  them  to 
contest  for  ribbons  as  prizes.  At  any  rate, 
we  will  not  tarry  with  this  detail  today. 

In  glancing  over  my  letter,  I  find  that  I 
have  been  very  liberal  with  my  "Don'ts"  to- 
night, but  I  hardly  regret  this,  as  it  will  leave 
me  a  liberal  number  of  "Dos"  for  my  next 
chat  with  you. 

Mrs.  J.  asks  me  to  add  her  compliments. 
So  here  goes  from 

Yours  sincerely 

Harold  James. 


[103] 


mttif  Uttttr 

November  ist. 
^EAR  DICK:— Yours  of  the  30th  was 
XLI  interesting,  because  it  shows  that  you 
must  be  a  little  better  than  a  "dub"  or 
the  coaches  would  not  have  kept  you  in  the 
last  fifty  men,  all  trying  for  that  foot-ball 
team.  From  your  account,  Hastings  must 
have  a  good  squad  this  year.  By  the  way,  if 
Williams  slapped  you  on  the  back  and  said, 
"Good  work,  keep  it  up  Freshy,"  that  sounds 
very  encouraging  to  me.  Williams  is  one 
terrific  tight-wad  when  it  comes  to  handing 
out  any  encouragement  to  beginners.  You 
say  that  you  get  back  to  your  dormitory  pret- 
ty well  tired  out,  after  holding  down  end  for 
an  hour  against  Primrose.  Ha!  Ha!  I  guess 
so,  but  in  that  we  find  some  more  tasty  food 
for  reflection.  You  know  what  Primrose  was 
last  year.     Well,  remember  that  you  are  not 

[104] 


Fifth   Letter 


mixing  it  up  with  that  end  for  nothing.  Take 
it  from  me,  that  Williams  knows,  that  the 
best  way  to  develop  a  youngster,  is  to  put  him 
up  against  one  of  his  best  players.  This  pro- 
cedure holds  good  in  all  sports,  and  also  later 
when  you  are  out  of  college.  To  learn  to 
play  a  big  game,  Dick,  you  must  buck  up 
against  fine  players.  To  learn  big  business 
you  must  deal  with  expert  business  men.  As 
soon  as  can  put  it  over  a  fellow  every  time, 
you  are  not  learning  much.  In  college,  al- 
ways pick  out  the  best  opponent,  as  you  have 
nothing  to  lose,  and  a  great  deal  to  learn. 

You  wrote  something  about  being  tired 
after  practice.  I  hope  you  are  not  getting  so 
much  interested  in  foot-ball,  that  your  studies 
are  not  receiving  the  proper  attention.  After 
all,  our  real  object  at  college  is  our  mental 
training, — athletics  come  second.  But  why 
take  up  our  time  with  discussing  studies 
versus  athletics ;  no  doubt,  father,  mother  and 
the  faculty  are  doing  their  part  along  that  line. 

[  105  ] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

Moreover,   I   believe   you   have   an   average 
amount  of  sense.       (Curtain.) 

It  strikes  me,  however,  that  it  might  be  a 
useful  hint  for  you  to  hear  that  it  pays  to 
play  a  clean  game.  If  a  coach  teaches  his 
players  dirty  tactics,  he  is  wasting  a  great 
deal  of  valuable  time,  and  further,  he  will 
immediately  reduce  the  efficiency  of  his  team. 
My  experience  is,  that  while  a  dirty  player 
is  trying  to  get  in  his  licks  or  get  even,  the 
other  fellow  is  getting  away  with  the  ball. 
Of  course,  Dick,  learn  all  the  dirty  tricks  that 
are  known  to  the  athletic  trade ;  but  only  with 
the  idea  of  protecting  yourself  against  a 
"rough-neck."  On  the  other  hand,  do  not 
forget  that  some  players  try  right  from  the 
start  to  get  the  goat  of  their  opponent-  They 
are  especially  fond  of  going  after  a  new  man 
in  that  way.  Just  make  up  your  mind,  my 
boy,  to  call  the  bluff  of  any  representative  of 
this  species  immediately  from  the  first  pipe  of 
the  whistle,  and  you  will  find  your  troubles 

[106] 


Fifth    Letter 


considerably  reduced.  Give  him  an  inch  and 
your  opponent  will  take  a  mile ;  give  him  noth- 
ing, and  treat  him  firmly,  and  he  will  treat 
you  respectfully.  I  might  add,  that  if  any  of 
your  friends  are  afraid  to  give  some  big  fel- 
low "tit  for  tat",  just  tell  them  for  me  that  i! 
ought  not  to  be  difficult  to  call  a  bluff  with 
several  officials,  and  the  eleven  men  of  your 
team,  on  the  spot,  ready  to  back  you  up.  To 
be  frank,  Dick,  I  never  was  much  in  an  open 
"free-for  all"  fight;  but  I  certainly  could  bark 
some  with  that  sustaining  influence  mentioned 
above,  at  my  side. 

Now  that  you  are  that  much  encouraged,  I 
suppose  there  is  not  much  chance  of  you  quit- 
ting the  ship  when  the  heavy  games  come 
around;  just  because  you  do  not  get  in  the 
first  few  contests.  Remember,  the  thing  to 
do,  is  always  to  be  "Johnny-on-the-spot." 
You,  no  doubt,  have  read  in  the  papers  lately 
how  one  of  our  comic  opera  stars  was  taken 
sick,  and  how  a  girl  out  of  the  chorus  had  to 


[107] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

fill  in, — only  to  become  a  success  in  one  even- 
ing ?  Well,  in  your  company,  there  are  eleven 
stars,  not  only  in  danger  of  getting  sick,  but 
of  being  made  sick  by  your  opponents.  Your 
part  is  in  the  chorus  on  the  side  lines;  but 
your  chances  are  ten  times  better  than  in  the 
above  case.  Your  turn  must  come  sooner  or 
later;  as  sure  as  your  name  is  Richard  Daw- 
son, the  minute  you  quit,  your  turn  will  be 
next,  and  you  will  be  missing.  I  will  never 
forget  what  a  prominent  business  man,  a 
Cornell  graduate,  told  me  when  he  engaged 
me  for  my  first  job.  He  said,  "Mr.  James, 
a  young  man  should  always  be  there  when 
something  happens,  and  when  nothing  hap- 
pens, then  he  should  make  something  happen." 
See  if  you  cannot  fit  that  to  your  case. 

To  make  something  happen,  a  man  must 
have  good  tools  to  work  with.  It  is  surpris- 
ing to  see  how  some  athletes  will  wear  clothes 
that  do  not  fit  properly,  or  keep  on  using  them 
after  they  are  half  worn  out,  just  for  senti- 

[108] 


Fifth   Letter 


ment  sake.  You  would  imagine  that  we  were 
still  in  the  middle  ages  to  hear  certain  men 
kick  about  giving  up  old  stand-bys!  Posi- 
tively it  savors  of  superstition  to  meet  a  man 
who  asserts,  "Play  without  those  shoes  on  my 
feet?  Why  I  can't  win  without  them,  they 
bring  me  good  luck!"  It  is  a  pretty  well  ac- 
cepted fact  among  athletes,  that  goods  that 
have  been  "worn  in"  are  more  efficient  than 
entirely  new  ones.  But  there  is  a  time  when 
your  base-ball  glove,  your  spiked  shoe,  your 
lacrosse  stick,  or  your  oar  has  served  its  pur- 
pose, as  far  as  actual  competition  is  concern- 
ed- Then  take  them  to  your  dormitory,  and 
hang  them  on  the  wall,  so  that  some  day  your 
children  can  look  on  the  arms  of  their  "has 
been"  father,  with  pride.  That  is  the  place  for 
them,  not  on  the  field  in  active  contest. 

This  care  of  proper  equipment,  Dick,  you 
will  always  find  is  one  of  the  chief  character- 
istics of  athletes  who  are  consistent  winners. 
These   men   take   no   chances   on   the   small 


[109] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

things.  They  eliminate  the  element  of  hard- 
luck  which  you  so  often  hear  men  complain 
of;  they  do  not  break  rotten  shoe  strings  just 
as  they  turn  into  the  home-stretch  at  the  fin- 
ish of  a  fast  quarter.  Neither  do  they  roll 
down  their  socks,  so  that  a  spike  can  catch  in 
the  same,  and  throw  them  in  a  heap — just  as 
their  relay  is  about  to  cross  the  tape  a  winner. 
They  also,  are  the  men  who  will  trot  out  on 
the  field  with  comparatively  new  cleats  on 
their  foot-ball  shoes,  when  father  Pluvius 
has  handed  out  an  extra  shower  on  Friday 
night  or  early  Saturday  morning.  Those  boys 
will  be  busy  carrying  the  ball  while  their  op- 
ponents are  trying  to  stand  up. 

Having  impressed  on  you  the  fact  that  a 
man  must  be  well  equipped  to  play  properly; 
I  fear  to  leave  that  topic  without  a  word 
about  a  parasite  which  seems  to  flourish  in 
the  athletic  world,  almost  as  well  as  its  cousin 
does  in  the  business  world.  1  mean  the  ath- 
letic grafter.     You  may  smile,  but  it  seems  to 

[110] 


Fifth   Letter 


be  born  in  mankind  to  try  to  get  something 
for  nothing.  Keep  your  ears  open  and  see  if, 
before  the  end  of  your  playing  season,  you 
don't  hear  some  well-known  player  recite, 
with  pride,  how  many  jerseys  and  pairs  of 
shoes  he  has  succeeded  in  getting  from  the 
management.  Some  men  have  enough  stuff 
to  keep  them  in  athletic  goods  for  years  to 
come,  and  yet  appear  always  in  the  same 
uniform.  They  do  not  dispose  of  them,  or 
use  them,  but  they  just  collect  them,  while  the 
bills  of  the  management  steadily  increase. 
To  run  a  first  class  team  is  a  very  expensive 
proposition, — especially  to  the  smaller  colleges. 
The  grafter  usually  has  more  than  enough 
paraphernalia,  while  some  youngster  is  with- 
out the  proper  equipment.  I  mention  this, 
Dick,  not  because  I  think  you  have  a  tendency 
in  that  direction ;  but  some  day  a  word  from 
you  as  a  leader  in  college  (now  do  not  blush) 
may  have  the  force  of  a  legal  decree.     So 


[111] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

keep  an  eye  on  this  "parasite  and  see  how  it 
parasites." 

My  observation  has  been,  that  one-third  of 
the  athletic  contests  are  won  on  the  other 
fellow's  mistake.  Here  is  a  rule  which  you 
will  find  useful  as  a  good  working  basis,  irre- 
spective of  what  sport  you  are  interested  in. 
It  is:  "Make  everything  sure  and  take  no 
chances."  Of  course,  as  is  the  case  with  ev- 
ery good  rule,  there  must  be  some  exception 
to  it, — ^but  what  it  is  here  I  will  keep  for 
another  day,  when  you  have  won  your  spurs. 
Yes,  "make  everything  sure," — why  I  could 
sit  here  for  an  hour  and  write  page  after  page 
of  cases,  where  some  athlete  did  not  make  his 
play  sure.  Have  you  ever  seen  a  batter  stop 
running  before  he  reached  first  base,  only  to 
see  the  first  baseman  drop  the  ball  which 
looked  like  a  sure  out?  That  is  a  common 
example.  Not  long  ago  I  witnessed  a  hockey 
game  between  two  of  our  prominent  college 
teams.     The  score  stood  two  to  two,  when 

[112] 


Fifth    Letter 


the  forward  line  of  team  "A",  bore  down  on 
the  goal  of  team  "B".  The  left  wing  made  a 
quick  pass  over  to  the  right  wing  player,  who 
negotiated  a  lightning  shot  before  the  goal 
keeper  could  get  from  his  right  post  over  to 
the  left  one.  The  right  wing  believing  it  im- 
possible for  the  goal  tend  to  stop  the  shot, 
immediately  after  lifting  the  puck,  turned  and 
skated  back  up  the  rink.  The  goal  keeper, 
however,  in  sheer  desperation,  stuck  out  his 
stick  in  the  direction  of  the  flying  puck;  and 
to  the  surprise  of  himself  as  well  as  of  every 
spectator,  stopped  the  rubber,  which  calmly 
rebounded  in  front  of  goal.  Had  the  right 
wing  only  kept  his  eye  on  the  puck,  he  could 
easily  have  gotten  the  rebound,  and  scored  the 
winning  goal, — in  spite  of  the  lucky  stop  of 
the  goal  keeper.  He  did  not  make  that  play 
sure,  and  the  other  side  won  in  an  extra 
period. 

I  suppose  the  most  costly  fault  of  this  kind 
was   committed   in   the   fall  of    1908,   when 


[113] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

Merkle  of  the  New  York  Giants  failed  to 
touch  second  base  in  his  haste  to  get  back  to 
the  club-house.  Not  making  the  play  sure,  cost 
McGraw  the  Championship  of  the 'National 
League,  Chicago  getting  first  place.  As  I 
remember,  it  was  in  the  last  half  of  the  ninth 
inning  and  the  score  was  one  to  one.  There 
were  two  hands  out  with  Merkle  of  the  Giants 
on  first  base,  and  McCormick  safely  hugging 
third,  when  Bridwell  stepped  to  the  plate  and 
tapped  a  safe  hit  to  centre  field-  Of  course, 
McCormick  crossed  the  home  plate  with  the 
winning  run,  as  Bridwell  made  for  first  base ; 
Merkle  was  then  forced  on  to  second,  but 
when  he  saw  the  winning  run  go  in,  instead 
of  touching  the  second  base,  he  turned  off  to 
the  Club-house.  Evers,  who  was  playing  sec- 
ond base  for  the  "Cubs"  had  his  eyes  open 
and  immediately  called  for  the  ball.  He 
touched  second  with  the  result,  that  after  an 
appeal  to  the  baseball  powers,  Merkle  was  de- 
creed out,  and  with  his  out  also  went  the  win- 

[114] 


Fifth    Letter 


ning  run  which  had  been  made  on  that  play. 
"Hard  luck"  you  say,  Dick;  "not  so",  say  I; 
Evers  played  the  game  sure  and  Merkle  did 
not. 

Another  valuable  characteristic  of  a  good 
athlete  is  that  he  tries  for  everything  and  nev- 
er quits.  This  goes  one  step  further  than 
making  a  thing  sure;  it  is  a  case  of  increas- 
ing your  chance  of  getting  a  point  which  you 
have  not  yet  turned  in  your  favor.  You  will 
hear  the  expression  that  "he  is  the  hardest 
worker  on  the  team."  As  far  as  the  rules  of 
most  efficient  playing  will  allow  him  to  be, 
there  ought  to  be  no  hardest  worker.  Every 
man  should  be  in  every  play  in  every  game. 
If  every  player  who  is  in  possible  reach  of  a 
play  goes  for  it  without  waiting  for  his  fel- 
low-player to  go  first,  your  team  will  improve 
to  its  limit.  The  first  thing  to  do,  is  to  get 
underway,  it  is  too  late  when  you  have  found 
out  that  your  team-mate  is  not  as  fresh  as  you 
are.    Why  is  it  that  men  like  Hughey  Jen- 


1115] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

nings,  Tyrus  Cobb  and  Wagner,  have  made 
their  reputations?  Simply  because  they  have 
made  it  the  rule  of  their  lives  to  try  for  ev- 
erything and  never  quit.  The  result  is,  that 
they  make  what  are  often  considered  as  im- 
possible plays.  How  many  times  in  his  palmy 
days  didn't  Jennings  connect  up  with  the  ball 
outside  of  the  third  base  line,  when  the  third 
baseman  thought  it  was  out  of  his  reach? 
The  fact  is  that  the  more  you  try,  the  quicker 
you  get  under  way;  your  movements  become 
instinctive,  costing  you  a  great  deal  less  ef- 
fort- Watch  closely  and  you  can  see  a  good 
back-field  player  start  after  a  punt  almost 
before  it  is  kicked.  Just  consider  the  effec- 
tiveness of  a  team  made  up  of  the  caliber  of 
men  which  I  have  mentioned  above, — is  it  any 
wonder  that  they  win  when  every  man  works 
all  the  time?  Nobody  is  over- worked  and 
nobody  is  underworked. 

Whenever  I  hear  the  words  "never  quit," 
it  takes  me  back  to  the  Poughkeepsie  boat 

[116] 


Fifth   Letter 


races  several  years  ago.  The  freshman  eight- 
oared  event  was  won  by  Syracuse,  after  Cor- 
nell had  been  in  the  lead  nearly  the  whole  way. 
In  fact,  Cornell  at  one  time  in  the  race  had 
such  a  lead,  that  any  one  familiar  with  ath- 
letic chances,  would  have  said,  that  even  if 
one  of  the  men  had  fainted  dead  away,  seven 
could  have  carried  the  boat  across  the  line, 
victorious.  A  faint  was  hardly  possible  be- 
cause Cornell  had  not  been  pushed  to  the 
limit;  they  were  going  easy.  Suddenly,  like 
a  bolt  out  of  a  clear  sky,  the  Cornell  shell 
collided  with  a  buoy  and  stove  in  her  bow. 
Syracuse  then  came  up  and  won  with  ease. 
"Cruel  luck"  you  say,  but  it  is  this  element 
that  makes  college  sport  fascinating.  There 
is  always  a  chance  for  the  weaker  teams. 

I  have,  Dick,  without  taking  up  any  parti- 
cular sport,  touched  on  some  of  the  general 
things  which  you,  as  an  athlete  ought  to  know. 
To  teach  you  the  game  is  what  your  coaches 
are  picked  for;  and  as  some  colleges  differ 

[117] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

with  reference  to  the  details  of  system  of 
play,  it  would  not  be  proper  for  me  to  com- 
ment on  the  effectiveness  of  particular  form- 
ations. There  is  one  more  thing,  however, 
on  which  I  think  all  well-balanced  men  agree ; 
and  that  is,  that  it  pays  to  be  be  a  good  winner, 
and  also  a  good  loser.  At  first  blush  it  would 
seem  that  anyone  could  be  a  good  winner. 
But  such  is  not  the  case.  Most  people  seem 
to  be  possessed  with  an  insane  desire  to  rub 
it  in;  they  seem  to  forget  that  they  them- 
selves have  at  times  lost  games;  but  for  the 
present  they  take  on  an  air  of  "I-told-you-so." 
Especially  the  winners'  lady  friends  always 
seem  to  expect  a  word  of  praise.  A  good 
working  rule  when  you  win,  Dick,  is  to  keep 
your  enthusiasm  in  check  until  you  get  off  by 
yourself  with  some  of  your  own  boys,  and 
then  you  can  cut  loose-  Tell  them  how  you 
did  it, — or  rather  how  your  team  did  it,  al- 
ways keeping  the  big  "I"  in  the  background. 
I  may  be  wrong,  but  it  strikes  me  that  a 

[118] 


Fifth    Letter 


member  of  a  college  team  is  somewhat  in  the 
same  position  of  a  boy  going  to  school.  My 
father  always  said:  "Harold,  I  refuse  to 
praise  you  for  bringing  home  good  reports, 
as  that  is  what  you  go  to  school  for."  So 
when  a  man  signs  up  for  a  team,  he  ought  to 
consider  it  his  duty  to  do  his  best  for  it,  irre- 
spective of  praise.  Do  not  forget  that  if  the 
boys  get  the  idea  that  you  are  a  wonder,  that 
they  will,  at  times,  expect  the  impossible  of 
you.  The  smart  man  shares  the  praise  with 
some  one  else  so  that  he  will  have  a  few  handy 
to  give  him  a  lift  when  the  team  is  in  for  a 
good  husky  bump.  Should  it  so  happen  that 
you  cannot  decently  escape  coming  in  contact 
with  your  opponents  or  their  friends  until 
several  days  after  the  match,  then  always  tell 
them  what  a  close  match  it  was.  That  it  was 
anybody*s  game,  only  you  had  the  luck  with 
you.  You  can  very  easily  put  this  over  on 
mother  or  sister  of  defeated  John;  as  they 
are  not  expected  to  know  or  see  when  John 

[119] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

is  absolutely  rotten  and  should  be  home  dig- 
ging potatoes  instead  of  trying  to  play  foot- 
baU. 

It  is  hard  enough  to  win  with  dignity,  but 
you  ought  to  see  the  difficulty  pile  up  when 
it  conies  to  being  a  good  loser.  To  lose  and 
smile  at  the  same  time  is  more  than  an  accom- 
plishment,— especially  when  you  feel  that  the 
referee  or  umpire  has  lost  the  game  for  you, 
by  reason  of  an  unjust  decision.  (How  much 
easier  it  would  have  been  to  say  "robbed"). 
My  experience  has  been  that  after  a  game  is 
lost,  there  is  no  use  crying  over  spilt  milk. 
All  the  "damning"  you  do,  cannot  change  the 
result.  Further,  if  you  offer  excuses  to  ev- 
erybody who  asks  you  about  the  game,  you 
will  soon  be  marked  as  a  sore-head.  Be  a 
man,  come  back  at  them  with  something  like 
this :  "Say,  that  was  a  great  game,  your  boys 
certainly  surprised  us  in  good  shape-  Well, 
it's  our  turn  next  time.  Good-bye  girls,  hope 
to  meet  you  soon  again."     There!  you  have 

[120] 


Fifth   Letter 


made  just  that  many  friends,  whereas  if  you 
had  started  a  long  argument,  you  could  never 
have  convinced  a  winner  or  his  friends  that 
his  victory  was  not  fair ;  and  you  would  have 
done  yourself  and  your  college  a  great  deal 
of  harm.  Argue,  and  John's  mother  and  her 
croonies,  will  march  home  and  tell  the  rest  of 
their  friends,  "My  what  a  bunch  of  sore- 
heads !  I  would  not  let  my  boys  go  to  Hast- 
ings if  it  was  the  last  college  in  the  world." 
So  it  does  not  pay, — smile  and  take  your  med- 
icine. Dick,  I  have  met  a  good  many  college 
boys  in  my  day,  and  I  find  the  whole  lot 
averages  up  as  a  good  sort,  with  one  or  two 
black  sheep  thrown  in.  It  is  funny,  but  we 
are  easily  convinced  that  the  other  fellow's 
team  does  the  dirty  work.  They  are  a  bunch 
of  "muckers" ;  they  always  "buffalo"  the  um- 
pire. My  theory  is,  to  go  in  and  win  in  spite 
of  the  dirty  work  and  the  umpire  or  referee, — 
win  by  a  score  that  shows  conclusively  which 
is  the  better  team, — and  then  shut  up. 


[121] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

Finally,  Dick,  about  this  peculiar  indescrib- 
able thing  called  "College  Spirit."  What  is 
College  Spirit?  I  find  myself  very  much  in 
the  position  of  the  average  individual  when 
asked  to  describe  a  spiral  staircase.  Dick, 
what  is  a  spiral  staircase?  Ah,  I  can  already 
see  you  making  movements  with  your  hands, 
in  your  efforts  to  show  the  shape  of  a  spiral. 
You  cannot  find  ready  words  to  describe  it; 
but  you  would  recognize  one  when  you  saw  it. 
So  with  "College  Spirit" ;  I  can  feel  it  on  the 
campus,  in  the  dormitories  and  in  the  clubs, — 
but  how  define  it? 

A  man  meets  you  on  the  street  and  tells 
you :  "Out  of  the  three  hundred  men  at  Hast- 
ings University,  two  hundred  are  trying  for 
the  foot-ball  team,  how  is  that  for  spirit"? 
At  the  Club,  you  meet  Jones  and  he  chirps  up : 
"Going  to  the  Army  and  Navy  game  ?  I  think 
the  Army  is  going  to  put  it  all  over  the  Navy ; 
but  I  like  the  spirit  of  the  sailor  boys ;  all  bets 
are  at  even  money."     Another  time,  Mr.  A. 

[123]     . 


Fifth   Letter 


rushes  into  your  office  with  the  following: 
"Can't  put  that  deal  through  for  at  least  three 
days;  Jackson  has  gone  to  attend  the  Com- 
mencement Exercises  and  Reunion  at  Yale, 
and  absolutely  refuses  to  be  called  home."  You 
say,  "Too  bad,"— but  think  after  Mr.  A.  has 
left,  "I  guess  that  is  some  College  Spirit." 
Again  you  secure  your  little  paste-board  and 
get  your  best  girl,  and  attend  a  game  of 
ball.  Although  your  college  has  the  game 
practically  cinched  by  fifteen  runs  in  the  third 
inning,  yet  the  rooters  of  the  losing  team 
cheer  each  player  as  he  steps  to  the  plate ;  and 
if  he  gets  as  far  as  first  base,  they  make  the 
welkin  ring.  You  turn  to  "Mary  Liz"  with  a 
patronizing  smile  and  remark,  "They  do  not 
know  how  to  play  ball,  but  these  rooters  have 
the  proper  spirit." 

Not  long  ago.  Carter  University  wanted  a 
million  dollars  as  an  endowment  fund.  A 
banquet  was  planned  to  loosen  the  purse 
strings ;  after  five  courses  of  good  "eats"  and 

[123] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

some  popping  of  bottles,  the  campaign  (not 
champagne)  was  launched;  with  the  result, 
that  one-half  of  that  million  was  subscribed 
then  and  there.  Next  morning  the  Daily- 
Gazette  spoke  editorially  as  follows:  "Great 
was  the  enthusiasm  at  the  Carter  University 
banquet  last  evening,  when  it  was  announced 
that  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been 
subscribed  at  the  one  sitting.  The  spirit 
shown  by  the  older  men  and  also  the  younger 
alumni  was  most  encouraging." 

The  acme  of  college  spirit,  however,  I  think 
you  will  agree  with  me,  Dick,  would  be  reach- 
ed, if  your  Faculty  would  allow  all  of  your 
students  to  be  excused  from  all  laboratory 
work  for  a  week,  so  that  you  could  practice 
up  yells  for  the  Stanford  game.  It  has  been 
done  before. 

From  these  many  individual  instances,  Dick, 
let  us  see  if  we  can  deduce  a  definition  for 
this  vague  thing  called  College  Spirit.  Listen, 
"College  spirit  is  the  readiness  with  which  a 

[124] 


Fifth    Letter 


man,  woman  or  child,  who  is  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  an  institution  of  learning,  is  wil- 
ling to  give  time  or  money  or  both,  to  further, 
to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else,  either  ath- 
letically or  financially,  the  prominence  or 
standing  of  said  institution."  Let  me  know 
what  you  think  of  that ;  but  do  not  show  it  to 
anyone  outside  of  the  lodge.  If  you  do,  I 
can  see  just  about  five  hundred  well-meaning 
parties  proceeding  to  "ge-ump"  on  yours  truly 
with  both  feet,  because  of  the  phrase  "to  the 
exclusion  of  everything  else",  and  for  the  un- 
due prominence  given  the  word  "athletically." 
I  don't  blame  them,  they  cannot  appreciate 
that  there  is  only  one  thing,  "first,  last  and  all 
the  time"  to  the  college  man  attending  college, 
and  that  is  his  college-  As  for  the  word 
"athletically",  that  is  put  in  simply  to  catch 
the  eye  of  the  bright  student  (you)  or  he 
would  not  read  the  definition  at  all.  If  the 
railroads  near  a  college  town  would,  at  their 
crossings  put  up  signs  with  the  word  "defini- 


[125] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

tion",  they  would  find  it  much  more  effective 
than  "Warning:  Stop,  Look,  Listen"  to  keep 
those  boys  away  from  the  track.  No  college 
man  goes  near  a  definition  if  he  can  help  it. 
The  clock  strikes  eleven,  as  a  warning  that 
I  ought  to  stop.  So  take  all  the  above  in  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  given. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Harold  James. 


[126] 


November  6th. 

TQeAR  dick  :— You  write  that  all  of  your 
]2J^  foot-ball  camp  is  in  a  fit  of  constern- 
ation, because  a  poster  signed  by  the 
faculty,  has  appeared,  giving  notice  that  no 
one  will  be  allowed  to  play  on  any  of  the  ath- 
letic teams  at  Hastings,  unless  he  has  an  aver- 
age of  70%  in  his  studies.  You  also  ask  me 
whether  I  have  any  suggestion  as  to  the  best 
way  to  meet  this  requirement.  I  congratulate 
Hastings  on  falling  in  line  with  most  of  the 
prominent  colleges  by  adopting  a  standard  of 
scholarship  for  its  teams.  In  the  past,  I  be- 
lieve your  faculty  contended  that  this  was  an 
unnecessary  restriction.  It  looks  to  me  as  if 
somebody  is  getting  wise  as  to  why  big  Jim 
Benson  preferred  to  switch  from  a  course  of 
Mechanical  Engineering  at  Hartford,  to  the 

[127] 


Are    You    Going   to    College 

classical  one  at  Hastings.  It  may  be,  that 
those  classical  representations  of  the  "Discus 
Thrower"  or  the  "Dying  Gladiator"  which  he 
saw  in  Europe  last  summer,  created  in  him 
a  desire  in  that  direction.  But  it  is  more  than 
likely  that  the  badly  sprained  ankle  which  he 
had  last  spring, — before  the  base  ball  season 
opened, — was  brought  on  by  a  little  note  signed 
"Faculty,"  and  which  read:  "Three  studies 
very  unsatisfactory, — Disqualified."  Of  course 
Dick,  I  am  only  surmising  and  may  be  wrong, 
but  a  close  friend  of  mine  who  attended  a 
faculty  meeting  about  that  time,  told  me  he 
helped  to  write  the  note. 

The  only  suggestion  which  I  can  male,  and 
I  hate  to  do  it,  is  that  each  one  of  you  fellows 
study  your  lessons.  That  is  the  only  safe 
"hunch."  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  70% 
means-  The  scale  of  marking  differs  in  many 
colleges,  but  I  know  this  much,  the  faculty  has 
not  set  a  standard  so  high  that  you  caimot  take 
it  with  comparative  ease,  and  some  to  spare. 

[128] 


Sixth    Letter 


• 


It  has  often  amused  me  to  see  how  hard  some 
boys  will  work  to  keep  from  studying.  If 
these  very  men  would  put  half  of  this  time  in 
at  their  lessons,  they  would  make  a  fair  show- 
ing, and  not  be  on  the  anxious  bench,  wonder- 
ing whether  they  will  be  called  on  to  recite  or 
not. 

Upon  further  consideration,  there  are  one 
or  two  things  which  will  make  the  instructor 
look  upon  you  with  more  favor,  when  it  comes 
to  your  turn  to  recite.  Again  these  pointers 
may  prove  of  great  assistance  to  you,  should 
you  require  one  sixty-thousandths  of  a  per 
centum  to  make  up  that  fatal  seventy.  First, 
always  attend  lectures,  and  second,  always  be 
punctual.  A  student  may  think  that  a  day  off 
here  and  there  makes  no  difference,  because 
the  instructor  has  told  his  class  with  a  great 
air  of  indifference,  at  the  time  of  his  first 
lecture:  "Gentlemen,  I  will  just  remark  by 
way  of  information,  that  my  lectures  will  be- 
gin promptly,  and  I  do  not  expect  to  take  my 


[129] 


Are    You    G oing   to    College 

valuable  (accent  on  the  valuable)  time  in 
watching  a  student's  attendance  If  you  miss 
anything,  that  is  not  my  funeral,  but  yours." 
This  sounds  too  soft  to  be  true,  and  as  a  cer- 
tainty, it  is  not  true.  Primarily,  because  a 
professor  is  bound  to  be  inspired  to  do  good 
work  when  the  attendance  is  large ; — and  sec- 
ondly, when  a  man  has  a  large  following  of 
students,  it  is  generally  indicative  of  his  abil- 
ity to  impart  knowledge.  This  ability  means 
calls  to  other  colleges,  and  they,  in  turn,  if  he 
does  not  care  to  change,  act  as  levers  to  raise 
his  salary  at  the  one  he  is  lecturing.  Compet- 
ition is  the  life  of  trade ;  and  after  all,  lectur- 
ing is  also  a  trade,  if  you  have  a  family  to 
support. 

So  much  for  the  attendance  in  general. 
Now  a  word  about  punctual  attendance- 
Come  in  late  and  every  student  will  have  a 
look.  This  is  bound  to  attract  the  attention 
of  the  lecturer,  and  at  the  same  time  distract 
his  attention  from  what  he  is  saying.     Some 

[130] 


Sixth   Letter 


men  I  know,  consider  lateness  at  lectures  a 
personal  insult,  and  others  lock  their  doors 
when  they  begin  to  speak.  It  is,  therefore,  a 
grave  question  whether  a  late  attendance  is 
not  worse  than  a  non-attendance.  In  the  lat- 
ter case,  the  instructor  may  not  miss  you ;  but 
in  the  former,  your  name  is  "dennis."  So  my 
hint  is,  that  when  five  out  of  six  instructors, 
who  have  "college  spirit", — are  trying  to  con- 
scientiously boost  you  over  that  70%  mark, 
because  you  are  the  best  end  on  ,the  foot-ball 
team, — do  not  have  a  record  of  non-attendance 
or  unpunctuality  staring  them  in  the  face. 
This  is  very  disconcerting  when  they  need  an 
excuse  for  doing  the  right  thing. 

Since  we  are  on  this  most  unpleasant  phase 
of  college  life, — studies, — I  will  give  you  a 
few  observations  by  a  man  who  never  was  an 
honor  man  in  his  class,  nor  landed  at  the  very 
bottom;  but  who  sailed  a  medium  course  be- 
tween both  ends,  and  managed  to  have  a  little 
fun  on  the  side.     It  is  imperative  to  make  it  a 

[  131  ] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

rule  to  do  some  studying  every  evening.  In- 
formation acquired  in  that  way,  makes  an  im- 
pression ;  this  "boning"  up  for  an  examinatioi- 
is  all  right  as  a  finishing  touch,  but  it  will  not 
last.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  bright  student 
can  dismiss  all  he  crgjnmed  up  for  one  exam- 
ination, in  time  to  make  room  for  the  next 
day's  battle. 

After  you  have  been  working  steadily 
through  the  term,  I  would  prescribe  a  series  of 
"quizzes"  for  the  last  ten  days.  These  meet- 
ings to  exchange  ideas  are  very  helpful,  be- 
cause half  a  dozen  young  men  in  convention 
assembled,  can  very  much  more  easily  think 
up  matters  of  importance  with  reference  to  a 
particular  course,  than  a  lone  individual.  The 
chances  are  that  all  the  students  have  not  been 
cutting  lectures  all  at  the  same  time.  Again, 
there  is  the  other  possibility,  that  all  were  not 
out  on  a  party  the  night  before  a  specially  im- 
portant explanation  by  the  professor.  Now, 
Dick,  when  you  send  out  invitations  for  a 

[132] 


Sixth   Letter 


"quizz",  be  sure  to  include  in  your  half  dozen, 
one  of  the  brightest  men  in  the  class.  No 
quizz  can  be  a  success,  without  a  light  that  can 
radiate  information.  Then  when  the  fellows, 
comprising  this  half  dozen,  begin  to  spread 
their  knowledge  all  over  the  room,  have  pen 
and  paper  ready  to  make  copious  notes-  The 
notes  you  memorize  the  night  before  exam. 
Of  course,  it  is  an  easy  matter,  in  most 
courses,  to  pass  if  you  know  what  questions 
the  instructor  is  going  to  ask.  Now,  as  under 
the  most  favorable  circtunstances  you  can 
hardly  expect  the  preceptor  to  let  you  know 
what  his  questions  will  be;  the  best  the  boys 
can  do  is  to  study  what  they  think  the  in- 
structor considers  most  important.  A  most 
logical  way  to  prepare  for  an  exam.,  especially 
when  it  is  up  to  you  to  absorb  four  months' 
work  in  four  days.  That  the  practical  stu- 
dent and  the  professor,  deep  in  theory,  do  not 
always  happen  to  land  on  the  same  thing  as 
important,    is    evident    from    two    questions 

[133] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

which  were  asked  in  a  chemistry  examination 
not  so  long  ago.  Imagine  the  consternation 
of  our  friends  when  these  greeted  their  eyes : 
"Question  i.  Why  is  a  cow?"  "Question  2. 
Why  is  the  moon  made  of  green  cheese?" 
One  student  in  chemistry,  who  became  a  little 
peeved,  promptly  volunteered  this  informa- 
tion: "Answer  i.  Because  she  cannot  help 
it."  "Answer  2.  Because  the  cow  got  sick, 
I  do  not  know  the  'reaction.*  " 

There  is,  however,  one  way  in  which  the 
student  body  can  find  out  whether  an  instruct- 
or ever  resorts  to  catch  questions.  That  is  by 
making  a  careful  study  of  all  the  examina- 
tion papers  of  any  particular  course  back  to 
the  time  when  the  instructor  who  is  going  to 
give  the  examination,  began  to  take  charge. 
Yes  they  can  be  found,  but  get  busy  now 
Richard,  and  corral  them  long  before  the  oth- 
er boys  begin  to  wake  up.  Later  on  every- 
body will  want  a  copy  at  the  same  time.  Why, 
I  bet  you  odds  right  now,  that  the  papers  are 

1134] 


Sixth    Letter 


carefully  stored  away  in  each  Frat  House  on 
your  campus-  If  not,  get  busy  and  make  a 
collection  for  the  boys  who  are  to  follow  and 
your  grave  will  always  be  kept  green,  watered 
by  their  tears  of  gratitude.  At  the  quizzes, 
these  questions  should  be  carefully  gone  over, 
and  answers  formulated  (by  the  bright  man 
in  the  class)  which  you  also  "cram"  the  night 
before  the  examination.  A  lot  of  these  ques- 
tions covering  several  years,  will  embrace 
nearly  all  the  important  topics  of  a  subject; 
and  also  any  idiosyncrasies  of  the  instructor. 
The  beauty  of  this  procedure  is,  that  it  is  per- 
fectly fair,  and  to  the  point;  no  sensible  in- 
structor wants  to  find  out  what  you  don't 
know.  He  is  satisfied  if  you  know  the  im- 
portant features  of  his  course. 

Now  that  you  are  clear  on  preparing  for 
exams,  let  me  give  you  a  little  consolation  in 
case  you  do  not  come  out  at  the  top  of  your 
class.  It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  be  one  of 
the  top  notchers  to  make  good  in  the  game 


[135] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

which  you  must  play  after  you  leave  the  col- 
lege halls.  A  mere  book-worm  will  not  do. 
He  is  too  one-sided  for  this  every-day  prac- 
tical world;  what  it  needs  is  a  bright,  honest, 
common  sense,  clean,  healthy,  hard-working 
all-around  fellow.  Do  not  understand  me  to 
say  that  a  good  scholastic  record  is  to  be  dis- 
dained; far  from  it, — only  it  alone  is  not 
enough.  Often  we  find  men  who  take  part  in 
all  college  activities,  and  yet  stand  high  in  their 
studies.  That  is  what  I  call  a  trump ;  he  has 
received  the  benefits  of  a  real  college  training. 
Not  infrequently,  we  come  across  people 
who  are  convinced  that  the  minute  a  boy  takes 
part  in  athletics,  he  is  an  impossibility  as  a 
student.  In  other  words,  when  athletic  prom- 
inence comes  in,  scholastic  standing  goes  out. 
This,  to  my  observation,  while  in  close  touch 
with  college  athletes  for  the  last  eleven  years, 
is  by  no  means  the  rule.  There  are  few  men 
who,  while  they  are  too  stupid  to  stand  well 
in  their  classes,  can  be  good  athletes.     If  they 

[136] 


Sixth    Letter 


do  not  measure  up  in  their  studies,  it  is  be- 
cause they  are  too  busy  or  the  instructor  is 
unable  to  make  the  subject  interesting  to  them. 
It  is  utterly  impossible  to  make  a  good  athlete 
out  of  a  block-head.  Modern  contests  are 
not  won  by  automatons.  It  takes  a  good  logi- 
cal mental  equipment  to  outwit  your  opponent. 
A  man  who  can  work  out  mathematical  prob- 
lems, a  man  who  can  analyse  his  chemical 
compound  with  accuracy;  and  the  man  who 
knows  the  "whys"  and  "hows"  of  his  physics 
experiments,  is  the  man  who,  if  he  has  the 
physical  qualifications  (and  these  need  not  be 
too  high), — can  make  a  good  athlete. 

Lately  when  a  man  says  to  me,  "How  do 
you  think  that  fellow  over  there  will  do  for 
our  team?  He  looks  pretty  hefty."  My  an- 
swer, involuntarily,  is  "Looks  pretty  good, 
but  how  does  he  stand  in  his  studies."  No 
doubt  many  of  our  athletes  could  stand  higher 
in  their  classes;  but  out  on  the  campus  they 


[137] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

are  learning  a  few  valuable  things  which  no 
instructor  can  teach  them  in  a  classroom. 

There  is  still  one  card  left  to  play  before 
you  are  compelled  to  resign  yourself  to  your 
fate,  and  take  your  walking  papers,  if  you 
should  draw  a  failing  mark.  This  card  is, 
what  is  known  as  the  tutor  trick.  You  re- 
quest a  private  conference  with  the  instructor 
whose  course  you  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to 
fathom;  and  then  you  suggest  the  fact  that 
you  would  like  him  to  name  a  man  who  can 
coach  you  up.  Never  under  any  circumstan- 
ces, pick  out  a  man  that  anyone  else  may  re- 
commend. The  divine  influence  in  this  pro- 
ceeding seems  to  be,  that  your  instructor  does 
the  picking.  It  is  peculiar,  but  college  statis- 
tics show  that  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hun- 
dred scholastic  failures,  are  cured  in  time  for 
the  final  examinations,  if  the  proper  coach  or 
tutor  is  secured.  If  the  instructor  suggests  his 
own  services,  don^t  grin,T)Ut  only  smile;  and 
dilate  on  how  kind  it  is  for  him  to  go  out  of 

[138] 


Sixth   Letter 


his  way  to  assist  you.  But  never  let  him  get 
away  from  you,  because  you  are  on  the  road 
to  recovery  already. 

Some  men  get  the  idea  that  they  can  get  in 
the  good  graces  of  the  professor,  if  they  have 
a  "pow-wow"  with  him  every  time  they  meet 
him.  And  if  they  do  not  happen  to  meet  him, 
they  chase  around  after  the  "prof"  until  the}r 
have  him  cornered.  After  a  lecture  you  will 
always  find  some  students  making  a  bee-line 
for  the  preceptor's  desk,  to  ask  him  some 
question-  They  cannot  wait  until  the  ordin- 
ary routine  of  a  course  brings  them  logically 
to  a  proposition.  No,  it  is  a  case  of  cross- 
country for  them.  "What  for?"  say  you,  "is 
all  this  ?"  "Why  bother  a  man  who  wants  to 
get  away  to  some  original  problem  ?"  My  boy 
those  students  can't  help  it,  they  have  what  is 
commonly  known  as  a  bad  case  of  "boot-lick- 
ing." The  ordinary  symptons  are  those  as 
set  out  above.  In  chronic  cases,  the  person 
afflicted   is   continually   raising   his   hand   ii\ 


[139] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

classrooms  and  volunteering  information, 
when  the  average  young  man  does  not  know 
the  answer.  It  is  certainly  delightful  to  know 
something  the  other  fellow  does  not  know ;  but 
do  not  give  the  answer,  Dick,  unless  you  are 
directly  asked  by  the  instructor.  Remember, 
that  it  is  htunan  to  be  jealous  of  the  man  who 
knows  more  than  you  do ;  but  my,  how  it  gets 
you  in  the  craw,  when  he  rubs  it  in.  So  you 
see,  a  student  must  guard  not  only  against 
actual  "boot-licking",  but  also  against  imagin- 
ary "boot-licking",  which  is  a  case  where  the 
other  fellows  think  that  you  are  petting  the 
instructor  along  to  get  good  marks;  whereas, 
you  are  not  thinking  of  such  a  thing.  To  sum 
the  matter  up,  Dick,  treat  your  instructor  re- 
spectfully, and  kindly ;  but  do  not  go  very  far 
out  of  your  way  to  rush  him. 

This  relation  between  the  student  and  his 
instructor  is  a  very  funny  thing,  and  does  not 
always  work  out  successfully.  Why  is  it,  that 
some  teachers  are  great  favorites,  and  others 

[140] 


Sixth   Letter 


are  only  considered  as  a  burden,  which  cannot 
be  avoided,  but  must  be  endured  ?  My  obser- 
vation is,  that  the  trouble  is  with  the  precept- 
or. I  take  the  liberty  to  say  this  here  to  you, 
Dick,  because  I  feel  I  can  discuss  a  matter 
with  you,  without  having  you  carry  away  a 
wrong  impression,  which  might  give  rise  to 
rebellious  campaigns  by  a  less  mature  mind. 
I  say  the  trouble  is  with  the  instructor,  because 
the  minute  the  average  man  takes  charge  of  a 
class,  he  assumes  so  much  dignity  that  he 
almost  falls  over  backwards.  He  seems  to 
forget  that  as  instructor,  and  the  older  man, 
it  is  up  to  him  to  fix  the  relation  between  him- 
self and  his  student.  He  often  waits  for  the 
student  to  speak  first  when  he  passes  him  on 
the  campus,  instead  of  volunteering  a  friendly 
nod  and  putting  the  younger  man  at  his  ease. 
Dignity  is  always  proper  in  a  classroom  and 
nothing  can  be  accomplished  without  it-  At 
all  other  times,  dignity  is  also  in  its  place,  but 
it  must  be  tempered,  a  little  with  the  spirit  of 


[141] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

good  fellowship,  if  an  instructor  wants  to  get 
the  confidence  of  the  student  body.  The 
greatest  trouble  seems  to  be,  that  the  instruct- 
or does  not  become  acquainted  with  his  class 
and  the  class  does  not  get  a  chance  to  know 
him.  The  result  is,  that  the  greatest  mischief- 
maker  I  know,  to  wit :  "one  misunderstanding" 
gets  in  his  licks.  One  student  gets  the  idea 
that  an  instructor  has  treated  him  unfairly, 
and  he  tells  the  other  fellows  so.  The  result 
is,  that  fifty  or  more  men  believe  his  state- 
ment; because  they  do  not  know  the  instruct- 
or well  enough  to  offset,  by  their  own  experi- 
ence, what  the  student  declares  is  so.  The 
next  thing,  we  find  is,  that  the  instructor  is 
looked  upon  by  the  majority  of  the  student 
body  as  being  peculiar,  or  unfair.  Now,  as 
the  boys  get  in  closer  touch  with  the  incoming 
classes  than  any  professor,  the  next  step  is 
for  the  seed  of  discontent  to  become  tradition, 
and  the  instructor  is  branded  for  years  to 
come.     The  real  remedy  seems  to  be  for  the 

[142] 


Sixth   Letter 


instructor  to  make  it  his  business,  whether  he 
cares  to  or  not,  to  mingle  with  the  students  at 
their  social  functions,  or  give  them  a  lift  with 
their  athletic  teams  Of  course,  the  easiest 
way  to  the  heart  of  a  college  man,  or  a  prep- 
school  youngster,  is  by  way  of  his  athletic 
interests.  A  preceptor  should  post  himself 
so  that  he  can  intelligently  discuss  their  prob- 
lems with  them.  He  should  get  up  and  make 
speeches  at  their  meetings,  without  having  the 
faculty  halo  hanging  all  over  himself.  I  know 
of  one  learned  doctor  who  did  not  know  a 
great  deal  about  the  technique  of  games;  but 
he  did  come  out  and  look  on  while  the  boys 
were  fighting  for  glory.  He  was  voted  ace 
high  by  the  boys,  when  one  day,  as  the  home 
team  pulled  out  by  a  narrow  margin  in  the 
last  four  minutes,  he  tossed  his  hat  in  the  air 
with  the  rest  of  the  "bunch."  That  same 
season,  he  fixed  himself  for  life  in  the  hearts 
of  the  campus,  when  he  stood  out  in  a  thun- 
der-storm holding  a  chair  over  his  head  for 


[143] 


Are    Y ou   Going   to   College 

protection,  because  he  would  not  desert  the 
side  lines  while  the  game  was  anybody's  con- 
test. Now  let  some  freshy  start  something 
about  said  professor,  and  he  is  quietly  in- 
formed that  he  must  be  mistaken  as  all  the 
other  fellows  know  he  is  O.  K. 

Many  instructors  have  the  idea  that  if  they 
get  on  an  intimate  footing  with  the  student 
body,  they  cannot  control  it  in  their  class- 
rooms. This  is  a  very  narrow  view,  and 
shows  lack  of  insight  into  the  character  of  the 
average  boy.  A  young  man  knows  just  as 
well  as  the  "Prof"  that  a  class-room  is  no 
place  to  lark.  Should  a  youngster  forget  him- 
self, just  a  friendly  conference  with  him,  in 
which  his  attention  is  called  to  what  it  means 
to  the  lecturer  and  to  the  whole  class  to  have 
order,  will  bring  about  all  that  is  desired.  The 
result  depends  all  on  how  the  correction  is 
made.  There  is  nothing  a  young  man,  or  even 
a  small  boy,  resents  more  than  being  attacked 
unjustly  and  harshly.     But  if  some  prank  can 

[144] 


Sixth    Letter 


be  turned  into  a  joke,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  class,  at  the  expense  of  the  boisterous 
youngster,  then  the  lecture  can  be  resumed 
with  perfect  decorum. 

Dick,  by  this  time  you  must  imagine  that  I 
have  booked  you  for  a  teacher,  and  am  hand- 
ing you  a  few  handy  rules.  They  may  not  be 
very  interesting  to  you  now;  but  I  thought  I 
would  "let  her  fly"  as  you  may  consider  doing 
some  tutoring  while  you  are  at  college,  and 
then  "a  stitch  in  time  is  worth  nine." 

Little  did  I  think,  when  I  sat  down  to  an- 
swer your  letter  tonight,  that  I  would  confine 
myself  almost  entirely  to  the  scholastic  side  of 
college;  but  I  dare  say  IVe  dropped  you  one 
or  two  hints  not  yet  served  for  your  edifica- 
tion by  either  Ma  or  Pa.  Finally,  Dick, 
sticking  to  my  materialistic  view-point, — they 
pay. 

With  regards  to  your  room-mate,  believe 
me,  Yours  sincerely, 

"Hal"  James. 

[145] 


November  12th. 

JP|  EAR  DICK :— Politics,— that  sounds 
jlrl  like  the  buzz  of  a  New  Jersey  mos- 
quito. For  the  last  two  weeks  I  have 
read  nothing  in  the  papers  but  politics.  For 
the  same  length  of  time,  I  haven't  been  in  a 
lunch  room  where  you  could  hear  anything, 
but  a  consistent  rumble  which  spelt  politics. 
Finally,  a  letter  from  a  freshman,  who  I 
thought  was  interested  in  little  but  athletics, 
and  Frats,  ends  up  with  this  eloquent  phrase : 
*  We  are  going  to  have  a  class  election ;  if  you 
have  a  little  time,  tell  me,  please,  what  you 
know  about  politics." 

Dick,  I  cannot  tell  you  all  I  know  about 
politics,  because  I  am  afraid  your  mother 
might  see  this  letter;  and  some  of  the  lan- 
guage  that    I    would    be    compelled   to   use; 

[  146  ] 


Seventh    Letter 


would  not  just  be  agreeable  to  her.  Politics — 
why  I  am  glad  you  also  used  the  word  "elec- 
tion", the  sound  of  the  former  word  always 
leaves  a  bad  taste  in  my  mouth.  Of  course, 
anything  that  has  to  do  with  "tics"  is  bother- 
some; but  I  believe  it  is  more  the  way  that 
City  boss  of  ours  swings  it  around  his  tongue 
that  gets  my  goat-  Yet,  I  must  cool  down, 
or  some  one  will  say  "Sore-head,  I  bet  he  has 
been  dumped  by  the  organization."  So  I 
cannot  tell  you  all  I  know  about  politics,  and 
to  tell  the  truth,  since  the  last  congressional 
election,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  what  I 
do  not  know  about  the  game  would  fill  quite 
a  bulky  volume.  If  it  must  be  the  said  topic 
tonight,  it  is  at  least  a  relief  to  consider  it  at 
college,  where  it  is  still  clean. 

In  all  seriousness,  Dick,  I  am  glad  that  you 
are  finding  a  little  spare  time  to  take  part  in 
elections.  They  do  not  come  often,  but  if  you 
think  for  a  instant  that  your  class  assembles 
on  a  certain  afternoon,  and  that  then  and 


[147] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

there  the  whole  scheme  is  outlined  and  com- 
pleted,— ^then  you  have  run  into  a  siding,  and 
should  get  back  on  your  main  track.  To  put 
it  in  a  pretty  way,  these  little  things  are 
"doped  out"  weeks  ahead  of  time.  I  have 
told  you  before,  that  college  is  a  little  world 
of  its  own;  and  then  only  a  minature  of  the 
large  world  outside.  Well,  politics  in  college 
is  like  the  same  diversion  in  any  of  the  cities 
of  our  country,  only  minus  filth  and  a  compli- 
cated voting  system. 

When  it  comes  to  the  machine  or  organi- 
zation, you  will  also  find  that  at  Hastings, 
only  it  is  more  subject  to  change.  Like 
all  enterprises,  it  takes  a  good  executive  to 
make  the  machine  go.  As  the  men  stay  in, 
college  four  years,  you  see  the  executive  is 
not  a  fixture.  The  parties  are  also  not  as 
staple  as  they  are  in  public  life;  but  there  is 
one  thing  sure,  Dick,  and  that  is,  that  you  can 
count  on  as  many  factions  as  there  are  Clubs 
or  Societies  in  college ; — and  to  this  always  add 

[148] 


Seventh    Letter 


one  extra  which  is  the  non-f  rat  element.  This 
element  is  practically  the  independent  vote, 
and  must  be  carefully  taken  care  of. 

The  reason  that  everybody  and  especially 
the  Societies  at  college  are  interested  in  the 
elections,  is  that,  having  many  of  their  mem- 
bers in  office,  is  a  great  advertisement  for  the 
lucky  Society.  The  strength  of  a  Society  in 
any  college,  depends  very  much  on  the  offices 
its  men  hold.  Then  again,  men  who  are  not 
physically  suited  for  athletic  honors,  desire  to 
shine  in  some  other  way. 

So  weeks  before  a  class  or  athletic-board 
election,  some  college  politician  begins  to  set 
up  a  slate,  which  he  thinks  he  can  put  through, 
and  then  the  underground  work  starts.  The 
moving  spirit  is  generally  some  Frat  man; 
who  gets  a  majority  of  the  factions  pledged  to 
support  his  ticket,  by  judicially  buying  each 
party  with  one  or  more  places  on  the  slate. 
The  Fraternity  which  stands  in  best  with  the 
non-frat   men,   can  generally   dictate   terms. 


[149] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

But  alas,  our  college  politicians  will  often  find 
themselves  double-crossed  at  the  last  minute- 
In  college  a  candidate  also  has  a  large  person- 
al following,  as  he  is  known  personally  to  each 
man,  who  can  judge  for  himself  whether  he 
is  suitable  to  hold  a  certain  position.  Thus 
the  faction  which  is  the  lucky  possessor  of  a 
good  athlete,  or  a  good  mixer,  stands  pretty 
high  when  it  comes  to  dictating  terms  to  the 
other  parties.  A  good  rule  to  follow,  in  elec- 
tions at  college,  strikes  me  is  one  that  a  well- 
known  and  successful  operator  in  Wall  Street 
told  me  about  not  long  ago.     When  I  asked 

him,  "To  what,  Mr. ,  do  you  attribute 

your  success?  His  reply,  after  a  few  puffs 
of  his  cigar,  was:  "Do  not  be  a  hog,  leave  a 
few  points  for  the  other  fellow," — and  (after 
a  few  more  puffs)  :  "Honesty  is  the  best  poli- 
cy, I  have  tried  dishonesty  and  found  it  didn't 
pay."  Pretty  frank,  you  think,  Dick,  but  that 
does  not  make  it  any  less  true.  If  the  various 
factions  at  college  get  the  idea  that  you  are 

[150] 


Seventh    Letter 


taking  the  "swine"  proportion  of  the  offices, 
they  will  give  your  party  the  "go  by"  next 
time. 

Richard,  if  you  are  looking  for  a  class 
presidency,  I  suppose  you  know  that  the  senior 
class  office  is  the  coveted  one.  If  that  is  your 
aim,  then  do  not  let  anybody  railroad  you  in 
as  freshman  class  president.  Few  executives 
of  the  freshman  aggregation  repeat  when  it 
comes  to  the  senior  year.  It  is  funny,  but  it 
is  more  than  a  wise  youth  who  can  please  all 
factions  enough  to  be  able  to  pull  through 
without  stepping  on  some  one's  toes. 

Now,  I  do  not  want  you  to  understand  me 
to  advise  you  against  taking  any  political  job 
in  college  in  your  freshman  class.  By  no 
means, — because  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  a 
man  who  desires  to  progress,  must  show  the 
rest  of  his  friends,  that  he  can  take  care  of  a 
piece  of  work  when  it  is  given  to  him  to  do. 
Take  one  of  the  smaller  positions,  and  fill  it 
properly ;  this  will  let  the  boys  in  college  know 

[151] 


*Are   You   Going   to   College 

that  you  are  more  than  only  an  athlete,  but 
have  also  some  business  ability.  If  you  refuse 
to  do  every  little  job,  why  you  are  hiding  your 
light  under  a  bushel,  and  you  cannot  blame 
the  boys  if  they  do  not  consider  you  for  a 
senior  office. 

//A  value  of  college  politics  that  should  not 
y1)e  overlooked,  is  that  it  gets  a  lot  of  young 
blood  interested  in  the  matter  of  suffrage, 
and  then  the  chances  are  that  they  will  at 
least  vote  in  public  elections  after  they  leave 
college.  Everybody  is  complaining  that  poli- 
tics are  rotten,  but  the  shouters  are  just  the 
people  who  refuse  to  give  a  little  time  to  help 
push  in  the  right  direction.  You  will  always 
find  the  professional  politician  on  the  job,  it 
is  his  bread  and  butter.  He  works  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year;  and, 
therefore,  he  is  an  expert  at  the  game.  The 
reformers  only  appear  for  a  spurt  when  things 
really  get  too  bad.  Now,  the  college  man  has 
the  tendency,  by  reason  of  his  non-contact 

[152] 


Seventh    Letter 


with  the  world  at  large,  to  forget  that  he  has 
a  civic  duty  to  perform.  Therefore,  I  say- 
that  indulgence  in  practical  college  politics 
ought  to  keep  alive,  and  possibly  fan  into  a 
flame  an  ember  of  public  duty  which  might 
otherwise  die. 

In  the  last  few  years,  it  has  been  interesting 
to  note,  that  in  many  of  the  colleges  a  start 
has  been  made  by  the  men  to  get  into  public 
elections.  Clubs  in  practical  politics  have 
been  formed,  and  the  men  have  gone  out  on 
election  days  and  acted  as  runners  or  watch- 
ers. This  will  bear  fruit,  because  the  way  to 
really  get  a  man  interested  in  anything,  is  to 
make  him  do  some  work  for  the  particular 
cause-  Of  course  the  men  who  attend  col- 
leges like  Yale  and  Harvard,  Pennsylvania, 
Hopkins  and  others,  which  are  situated  in 
cities,  and  not  in  the  country  districts,  have  a 
good  opportunity  to  take  up  practical  work  of 
Jhis  kind. 

Dick,  you  also  described  in  your  last  letter, 

[153] 


Are    You   G oing   to    College 

with  a  good  deal  of  enthusiasm,  a  reception 
that  the  President  had  given  to  the  freshman 
class.  Well,  from  what  I  know  of  Hastings, 
this  must  be  one  of  the  tamest  affairs  that  you 
will  meet  with  during  your  sojourn  at  said 
institution.  You  have  still  to  be  introduced 
to  the  little  musical  club  affairs,  the  state- 
ly "Proms"  with  the  ladies  as  a  trimming,  the 
less  stately  Dramatic  Club  "Jamborees",  and 
lastly,  the  least  stately  Class  Banquets. 

I  only  mention  the  musical  clubs  and  Proms 
in  passing,  because  each  have  their  rules  and 
regulations  which  social  etiquette  requires 
(see  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  any  issue). 
Further,  they  are  purely  social,  and  only  teach 
the  boys  behavior  and  proper  bearing  in  the 
presence  of  ladies.  This  is  essential  for  any 
well  rounded  man  be  he  of  the  college  type  or 
otherwise,  but  which,  I  feel,  ought  to  be  bred 
in  every  American  boy;  in  fact,  thoroughly 
rooted  in  any  man  before  he  reaches  college. 

Now,   when   it   comes   to   Dramatic   Club 

[  154  ] 


Seventh    Letter 


"Jamborees",  and  Class  Banquets,  I  must 
tarry  a  moment  and  chat  with  thee.  To  begin 
with,  in  some  colleges  before  a  class  banquet, 
the  questions  comes  up  whether  the  event  is  to 
be  dry  or  wet.  Taking  it  for  granted  that  you 
are  uninitiated, — dry  or  wet  means  whether 
drinks  are  to  be  served  or  not.  When  this 
proposition  is  put  to  a  vote,  the  wets  gener- 
ally win  out.  Whereupon  the  next  practical 
consideration  is  whether  the  liquid  refresh- 
ments are  to  be  included  in  the  subscription 
for  the  banquet,  or  whether  each  person  is  to 
pay  for  what  he  drinks.  Here  on  the  other 
hand,  you  will  find  the  vote  in  favor  of  the 
drys,  as  the  latter  do  not  feel  that  they  ought 
to  be  burdened  with  the  capacity  of  the  wets. 
On  the  whole  for  the  welfare  of  everybody 
concerned,  the  best  way  to  arrange  matters,  is 
to  have  each  order  what  he  pleases  and  pay 
for  it.  In  this  way,  the  capacity  of  the  wets 
is  not  stretched  to  an  unusual  degree. 

Before  my  little  temperance  lecture,  I  wish 


[155] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

you  to  distinctly  understand,  Dick,  that  I  am 
not  saying  that  thou  shalt  not  do  this  or  that ; 
first,  because  I  am  not  your  father,  and  second- 
ly, because  I  know  that  the  "don't-you-dare" 
method  is  the  wrong  way  to  achieve  results 
with  young  men.  They, —  like  most  of  hu- 
manity,— derive  a  particular  pleasure  from  in- 
dulging in  forbidden  fruit.  Why,  if  my  fath- 
er (I  thank  him  for  his  ingenuity)  had  told 
me,  "Harold,  I  will  not  allow  you  to  smoke 
until  you  are  twenty-one,"  I  would  be  an  in- 
veterate smoker  now,  and  probably  have  been 
a  veritable  chimney,  before  sixteen. 

But  no  he  simply  said  one  day :  "Look  here, 
sonny,  you  will  probably  see  your  friends 
smoking  soon  and  you  will  also  want  to  smoke. 
I  will  not  forbid  you  to  do  so,  but  come  to  me 
so  that  I  can  give  you  something  decent  to 
puff  away  at,  something  that  will  not  hurt 
you."  I  promised  to  do  so,  and  the  result 
was  that  I  was  not  compelled  to  betake  myself 
to  the  hay  loft  or  a  coal  bin,  to  get  in  a  few 
[156] 


Seventh    Letter 


puffs  in  secret;  I  cared  not  to  smoke.  As  I 
progressed  through  college,  I,  at  times,  missed 
my  pipe,  but  only  to  feel  rewarded  when  the 
other  fellows  were  complaining  about  their 
wind;  and  that  they  had  to  give  up  smoking 
when  they  went  into  training.  People  tell  me 
I  am  missing  a  great  deal  by  not  smoking  now, 
but  I  am  from  Missouri,  and  they  must  show 
me.  So  far,  I  can't  see  that  it  pays.  Curtain 
on  that  subject,  because  I  am  wandering  away 
from  my  real  topic :  "drink  at  class  banquets." 
Dick,  I  think  it  is  safe  to  phrophecy  that  you 
will  never  go  to  a  class  spread,  where  you  will 
not  find  at  least  one  fellow  under  the  influence 
of  liquor.  This  influence  seems  to  develop 
peculiar  tendencies ;  most  men  enjoy  breaking 
dishes  and  making  funny  speeches,  or  throw- 
ing salads  at  looking  glasses ;  but  why  go  into 
these  details  that  you  can  see  for  yourself? 
At  your  first  banquet,  be  careful  when  you 
are  invited  to  take  a  drink,  remember  that  a 
high-ball  is  a  very  deceptive  and  insidious 


[157] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

thing.  Further,  go  it  very  easy,  because  if 
you  once  get  intoxicated  with  the  boys,  you 
are  almost  sure  to  be  with  the  happy  throng 
the  next  time.  I  do  not  say,  "do  not  drink", 
but  I  say,  "never  get  drunk."  It  is  just  that 
turning  point  which  is  very  difficult  to  locate, 
— hence  "play  safe." 

Many  people  advance  the  argument  that  a 
young  man  must  sow  his  wild  oats  at  college ; 
and  that  he  will  get  over  it  and  settle  down. 
My  observation  has  been  that  some  young  men 
have  not  the  strength  of  character  to  get  over 
it;  they  go  to  the  bad  unless  quickly  removed 
and  placed  in  solid  company.  I  agree  that 
not  many  fellows  are  injured  by  these  "once- 
in-a-while"  parties,  but  the  trouble  about  it  is, 
Dick,  that  you  do  not  know  whether  you  are 
not  going  to  be  one  of  the  unlucky  few. 

The  funny  part  of  it  all  is,  that  the  college 
men  who  indulge  in  parties  the  oftenest,  are 
the  very  ones  who  admire  a  young  man  who 
sticks  to  his  ginger  ale  and  gets  into  bed  at  a 

[  158  ] 


Seventh    Letter 


proper  hour-  They  will  not  tell  you  so,  and 
even  ridicule  you  for  not  taking  a  hand  in 
their  trips  to  paint  the  town  red;  but  it's  so 
and  I  dare  anyone  to  deny  it.  A  temperate 
living  pays  not  only  in  college,  but  in  the  bus- 
iness world.  Why  the  big  industrial  heads 
who  are  the  worst  roust-abouts  and  intemper- 
ate livers,  are  the  first  ones  to  refuse  to  have 
in  their  employ  a  young  man  with  similar 
habits.  They  refuse  to  and  often  cannot  stop 
themselves,  but  therefore,  they  want  to  know 
that  their  business  interests  are  fully  protected. 
You  may  say  that  a  man  should  not  find  fault 
with  a  youngster  because  he  himself  does  not 
practice  what  he  preaches.  That  is  true  as  a 
general  proposition ;  but  how  much  more  elo- 
quent and  forcible  is  the  advice  of  a  man  who 
knows  that  certain  habits  do  not  pay,  and  yet 
cannot  break  away  from  them.  Put  this  little 
"straight  cut"  in  your  pipe  and  smoke  it.  "To 
get  along  with  the  boys,  it  is  only  necessary 
for  you  to  deliver  the  goods,  all  else  is  bosh." 


[159] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

I  repeat  this  characteristic  phrase  by  Uncle 
Josh;  because  so  many  young  men  seem  to 
think  that  it  is  necessary  always  to  drink,  to  be 
a  successful  mixer.  Observe  Dick,  along  the 
lines  suggested,  and  let  me  hear  your  deduc- 
tions,— they  will  interest  me. 

The  above  banquet  room  air  has  given  me  a 
stuffy  feeling,  so  a  stroll  on  the  campus  for  a 
few  deep  breaths  will  do  me  good.  What  do 
you  hear  about  the  Princeton  and  Yale  game  ? 
Who  does  Coach  Williams  think  will  win  the 
contest?  Possibly  he  has  heard  something 
from  Camp  or  Coy  about  Yale;  you  know  a 
fellow  can't  get  any  satisfaction  out  of  these 
dailies ;  they  write  a  great  deal,  but  you  never 
know  whether  or  not  some  masterful  hand 
has  doctored  them.  There  is  so  much  in 
keeping  the  other  team  in  the  dark.  The  duce 
of  it  all  is,  that  I  have  been  tied  down  pretty 
close  to  my  desk  lately ;  but  this  rush  must  be 
over  soon,  and  then  for  a  few  of  these  cross- 
country hikes  over  to  Morning  Grove  to  see 
[160] 


Seventh    Letter 


the  boys  at  work,  and  back  again.  Tell  Wil- 
liams to  keep  his  eye  pealed  for  "Pop"  Warn- 
er's Indian  braves;  they  look  like  they  might 
take  in  a  few  good  scalps  this  year,  while  the 
"big-heap-whites"  are  getting  under  way, — 
to  be  more  explicit,  while  the  season  is  young. 

By  the  way,  Dick,  that  was  a  good  picture 
of  yours  in  one  of  the  New  York  papers  last 
Sunday;  I  believe  it  was  entitled  "Hastings 
Scrub  Line-up."  You  look  like  you  were 
going  right  after  them;  was  that  for  press 
purposes  only,  or  do  you  always  mean  business 
in  that  way?  Well  we'll  see, — you  can't  fool 
yours  truly  when  he  gets  his  optics  on  you 
from  the  side-lines!  In  a  week  or  two  I'll 
see  whether  you  are  a  real  live  "pup"  or 
whether  it  is  only  mother  and  sister  (your 
sister  of  course)  who  are  seeing  things 
through  the  eyes  of  family  pride- 

Ding!  dong!  there  goes  ten-thirty;  just  a 
good  time  to  stop  and  wander  down  to  the 
post  box,  deposit  this  letter  and  roll  back  by 

[161] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

way  of  Maple  Avenue,  Appleton  Place,  etc., 
to  wit :  one-half  mile.     Then,  to  bed. 
So  long, 
Yours  sincerely, 

Harold  James. 


[1G2] 


iEtgljtIf  ^ttttv 


November  i8th. 

'■Q  EAR  DICK : — I  had  read  in  the  afternoon 
Irl  paper,  the  day  before  your  last  letter 
reached  me,  that  you  had  been  made 
captain  of  the  freshmen  eleven.  But  I  hesi- 
tated to  rejoice  at  your  being  selected,  because 
when  it  comes  through  a  college  reporter, 
there  is  many  a  slip  between  facts  and  news ; 
and  I  did  not  care  to  get  in  wrong.  Now  that 
the  truth  is  brought  to  me  by  such  good  auth- 
ority as  yourself,  I  take  this  opportunity  to 
say  "Bravo !  sehr  gut !" 

As  that  information  was  only  to  lead  up  to 
the  real  object  of  your  letter,  we  will  imme- 
diately turn  to  that.  You  have  the  proper  idea 
Dick,  now  that  you  are  captain  you  want  to 
handle  them  properly.  If  you  do  this  little 
job  nicely,  the  boys  may  honor  you  later  with 

[  163  ] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

the  captaincy  which  is  spelt  with  a  large  C. 
That,  however,  is  looking  several  years  ahead. 
I  am  glad  you  wrote  to  me  promptly,  as  I 
believe  a  few  timely  hints  may  make  your  road 
easier  to  travel. 

To  begin  with  Dick,  you  are  going  to  learn 
more  foot-ball  in  a  week  now,  than  you  did  in 
a  month  heretofore.  It  will  devolve  upon  you 
not  only  to  solve  your  own  problems;  but 
those  of  all  the  other  Freshmen.  They  will 
ply  you  with  questions  at  every  practice,  and 
expect  you  to  answer  them  off  the  bat.  Take 
it  from  me,  Dick,  no  man  knows  a  subject 
thoroughly  until  he  can  teach  another  fellow. 
When  you  are  called  upon  to  explain  anything 
to  another  party  clearly,  you  cannot  jump  any 
uncertain  points ;  you  must  either  acquit  your- 
self with  credit,  or  convict  yourself  in  the  eyes 
of  your  fellow  men.  Thus  you  will  be  forced 
to  figure  out  ahead  of  time  all  conceivable 
plays,  so  that  you  may  be  there  with  a  ready 
explanation  when  your  subordinate  asks  you 

[164] 


Eighth   Letter 


"Why  or  How"  ?    It  will  not  suffice  to  tell  a 
beginner  to  make  a  certain  play;  you  must 
also  tell  him  the  reason  why  it  is  done,  and 
further  how  is  the  most  efficient  way  to  do  it. 
As   I  have  told  you  before,  Dick,  yours 
truly  is  not  going  to  mix  into  the  theory  of 
any  of  the  games  at  Hastings.    You  have 
your  coaches  for  that ;  but  I  do  take  the  liber- 
ty, at  your  request,  to  give  you  some  general 
points    which   you   ought   to   find   of   value, 
whether  you  are  handling  a  team  as  captain 
or  coach.     Now  I   believe  I  have  told  you 
before  that   nobody   can   make   a   successful 
coach  to  order.      There  are  many  rules  that 
can  be  taught,  but  the  ground  must  be  fertile 
to  produce  results.       This  fertility  in  many 
cases  goes  back  to  birth.       I  mean  that  cer- 
tain men  are  born  with  an  instinct  and  person- 
ality,   which    makes    them    good    executives. 
How  few  these  are,  you  will  see  in  a  short 
while,  provided  you  only  keep  your  eyes  open. 

[165] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

The  essential  thing  to  keep  in  mind,  is  that 
you  must  impress  it  on  your  squad,  that  when 
you  are  talking  or  explaining  a  move,  nobody 
else  is  allowed  to  speak.  In  other  words, 
absolute  attention  is  neccessary,  so  that  every 
one  of  the  boys  will  clearly  understand  what 
you  mean.  No  team  can  ever  hope  to  be  a 
success,  unless  every  man  understands  each 
play  exactly.  Otherwise,  we  have  a  hesi- 
tancy, and  the  machine  lacks  a  unity  of  action. 
It  moves  in  jerks.  If  you  have  a  notion 
that  a  fellow  does  not  quite  catch  on  to 
what  you  have  said,  then  ask  him  to  ex- 
plain the  play  to  you.  In  other  words, 
quizz  him  just  like  an  instructor  would 
his  class-  I  suggest  this,  because  there  are 
many  men  who  are  afraid  that  the  other  men 
will  consider  them  stupid,  if  they  respond  to 
your  question  "as  to  whether  they  understand" 
with  "no."  They  will  prefer  to  answer  "Yes, 
I  understand,"  hoping  to  pick  up  as  they  go 
along. 

1166] 


Eighth   Letter 


Encourage  your  men  to  ask  questions,  but 
make  them  wait  until  you  get  through  talking, 
when  you  should  always  give  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  ask  for  enlightenment.    A  very  good 
way  to  instruct,  is  to  use  the  black-board,  so 
that    the    moves    can    be    closely    followed. 
Another  and  in  many  ways  a  better  way,  is  to 
have  a  set  of  chess  men,  and  a  large  table,  laid 
out  like  the  playing  field.     All  the  men  can 
then  gather  around  that,  and  get  a  full  bird's- 
eyeview  of  each  play.    This  black-board  and 
chess  work  is  fine  for  rainy  days.  Try  it,  Dick. 
Another  suggestion  is  that  you  give  your 
men  distinctly  to  understand,  that  the  best 
man  is  going  to  get  the  position  on  the  team, 
irrespective  of  his  social  standing  or  affiliation 
to  any  of  the  secret  Societies.  There  ought  to 
be  Dick,  for  a  successful  team,  only  two  quali- 
fications, first,  that  a  man  is  a  gentleman,  and 
secondly,  that  he  is  the  best  player  eligible  for 
the  team.    If  a  few  of  our  colleges,  who  have 
not  been  so  successful  in  athletics  lately,  would 

[167] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

make  the  above  their  motto,  some  of  the  other 
teams  would  be  compelled  to  look  to  their 
laurels.  But  I  am  drifting. — The  best  way  to 
keep  harmony  is  to  encourage  every  man  who 
feels  that  he  is  not  getting  a  fair  deal,  to  come 
to  you  privately  for  a  little  "pow-wow." 
Then  you  must  honestly  show  him  what  is  the 
trouble  with  his  playing.  Come  right  out  and 
give  it  to  him  from  the  shoulder.  If  he  is  not 
man  enough  to  take  frankness  when  he  asks 
for  it,  why  then  he  is  not  suitable  athletic 
timber.  You  will,  I  am  glad  to  say,  find  that 
nearly  all  college  men  do  not  fear  a  hot  shot, 
provided  you  play  fair.  Another  very  excel- 
lent plan  is  to  call  one  of  the  delinquent's 
particular  friends  into  consultation,  and  tell 
him  what  is  what.  By  having  these  little 
talks,  you  can  generally  kill  a  germ  of  discon- 
tent,— due  often  to  a  misunderstanding  right 
at  the  start,  before  it  finds  a  comfortable 
lodging  place  with  the  family  of  your  dis- 
[168] 


Eighth   Letter 


satified   candidate,    and   with   his   coterie   of 
friends. 

Some  coaches  get  the  idea  that  they  can  do 
more  effective  work  by  the  use  of  profane 
language.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest  mis- 
takes on  earth.  First,  because  many  men  re- 
sent being  treated  in  that  way,  and  then  again, 
if  cursing  is  made  use  of  continuously,  it  is 
about  as  productive  of  results  as  a  horse-whip 
is  when  used  incessantly  on  the  poor  animal. 
No  doubt  you  have  seen  a  farmer  going  along 
the  road  with  a  continuous  "Gid-dap", — whip, 
— "Gid-dap" — whip.  Why  the  horse  does  not 
even  notice  these  regular  taps.  It  takes  an 
unusual  lashing  to  make  him  give  a  stir.  So, 
when  a  coach  or  captain  punctuates  all  his 
talks  with  "blue  language",  it  takes  a  lurid 
application  before  it  strikes  home.  A  quiet, 
forceful  tone  is  the  proper  thing.  Then  some 
day,  when  all  else  has  failed  to  awaken  a  real- 
ly lazy  team  into  action,  you  can  try  a  little 
"cussing"  as  a  final  chaser.     If  the  team  is 

[  169  ] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

really  loafing,  the  effect  will  be  electrical ;  oth- 
erwise it  does  more  damage  than  good.  Dick, 
get  along  without  it.  You  may  apply  this 
whip  to  the  wrong  horse,  and  smash  the  whole 
team. 

Also  do  not  forget  what  I  told  you  about 
men  not  being  able  to  play  a  good  game,  unless 
their  paraphernalia  is  in  the  best  of  shape. 
Of  course,  it  must  be  worn  in,  but  that  under 
no  conditions  means  worn-out, — as  many  play- 
ers seem  to  think-  Just  imagine  your  disap- 
pointment in  a  full-back,  should  you  call  on 
him  for  a  try  from  the  field,  only  to  find  that 
his  shoe  was  split  across  the  instep,  and  hence 
his  chances  for  a  successful  drop  reduced! 
Again,  a  loose  shoe-string  may  trip  one  of 
your  half-backs  just  as  he  has  cleared  the  end 
for  a  touch-down.  Don't  for  a  minute  think 
that  because  you  have  told  the  men  to  keep 
their  uniforms  in  the  best  of  shape,  that  they 
are  going  to  do  it.  Not  on  your  life ;  a  good 
[170] 


Eighth   Letter 


coach  must  have  his  eyes  everywhere  all  the 
time. 

Speaking  of  uniforms,  reminds  me  of  the 
fact  that  you  will  find  some  players,  who  are 
so  ready  to  protect  themselves  against  injury, 
that  they  actually  encumber  themselves.  They 
make  themselves  slow  by  carrying  extra 
weight.  On  the  other  hand,  some  men  refuse 
to  protect  themselves  at  all,  on  the  plea  that 
they  cannot  play  their  game.  Dick,  I  like  to 
see  a  fellow  have  grit,  but  I  refuse  to  break 
up  a  fine  piece  of  mechanism  by  slamming  it 
against  the  wall.  There  is  a  way  of  getting 
the  best  out  of  a  man,  not  only  for  one  or  two 
days,  but  for  the  whole  season.  Not  only 
that,  but  there  are  men  who  lose  their  nerve 
when  injured  once,  and  become  less  useful  to 
the  team  afterwards.  They  lose  confidence, 
and  like  a  locomotive  engineer  once  in  an  ac- 
cident, do  not  bring  the  express  in  on  time. 

Therefore,  pad  your  men  judiciously,  keep- 
ing an  eye  on  the  season  of  the  year  in  which 

[111] 


Are    You   G oing   to   College 

the  contests  take  place,  and  the  game  that 
they  are  playing. 

Also  teach  your  men  to  protect  themselves 
from  unnecessary  injury,  by  showing  them 
how  to  handle  their  bodies,  so  that  opponents 
cannot  get  in  any  dirty  work.  Unfortunately, 
we  still  find  coaches  who  instruct  their  "colts" 
how  to  put  a  man  out.  To  be  more  particular 
"to  knee",— "to  spike",— "to  elbow",— "to 
cross-check"  him.  A  few  words  of  advice 
will  often  prevent  a  muscle  bruise  and  more 
serious  injury. 

Another  important  thing  to  impress  on  your 
men,  is  that  they  must  control  their  tempers. 
If  an  opponent  finds  out  that  he  can  tgg  you 
on,  you  are  lost.  Some  men  try  to  worry  a 
man  into  using  his  fists,  and  then  quickly  call 
the  attention  of  the  umpire  or  referee  to  the 
fact.  I  have  seen  the  work  of  a  whole  season 
go  for  naught  in  a  critical  moment  of  the 
game,  just  because  a  good  player  could  not 
control  his  temper  under  trying  circumstances. 
[172] 


Eighth   Letter 


Of  course  it  is  the  green  man  who  is  liable  to 
tumble  the  easiest. 

Now  I  come  to  what  I  consider  the  most 
difficult  thing  for  a  coach  to  master,  and  that 
is,  the  art  of  getting  a  man  into  shape.  You 
will  find  out,  Dick,  probably  by  the  time  you 
are  ready  to  graduate,  that  there  are  three 
elements  which  must  be  considered  in  making 
a  player  do  his  best.  They  are:  his  know- 
ledge of  the  game :  his  physical  condition :  and 
his  mental  attitude.  My  observation  has  been 
that  his  efficiency  for  any  game  or  event,  de- 
pends half  on  his  knowledge  of  the  game,  one 
quarter  on  his  physical  condition  and  the  re- 
maining twenty-five  per  cent,  on  his  mental 
attitude.  This  division  is  made,  because  a 
man  may  be  equipped  with  all  there  is  to 
know  about  the  theory  and  technique  of  a 
game,  and  yet  be  in  such  a  wretched  physical 
condition  that  he  cannot  deliver  the  goods. 
Again,  being  an  expert  player,  and  being  in 
the  best  of  trim,  he  will  lose  just  because  he 


[173] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

considers  that  the  game  will  be  too  easy;  or 
because  he  thinks  that  he  has  no  chance  to 
win.  Many  teams  are  beaten  before  the  game 
begins,  due  to  the  fact  that  their  opponents 
have  big  reputations.  Others  are  nicely  white- 
washed, because  they  cannot  stand  prosperity, 
and  their  heads  begin  to  swell.  So,  Dick,  do 
not  spend  all  your  time  in  perfecting  plays, 
but  take  enough  time  to  see  that  your  men 
are  in  perfect  shape ;  and  as  a  finishing  touch, 
see  that  the  boys  have  the  proper  mental 
attitude.  Then  when  the  whistle  blows,  they 
will  cut  loose  and  play  better  than  they  know 
how. 

To  train  men  properly,  you  cannot  follow 

any  fixed  rules.     I  do  not  care  what • 

(fill  in  any  expert  you  care  to)  has  written  on 
"how  to  train  a  team."  Some  fundamental 
rules  are  good  to  start  in  with,  but  remember 
that  no  great  expert  trains  all  his  men  alike. 
The  temperament  and  habits  of  each  man 
must  be  closely  studied.     The  work  that  can 

[174] 


Eighth   Letter 


be  piled  on,  one  man  would  send  another  stale 
before  the  season  is  half  under  way-  When 
in  doubt,  work  a  man  too  little  rather  than 
too  much.  Better  have  him  under-trained 
than  over-trained.  If  he  goes  really  stale, 
you  might  as  well  throw  up  the  sponge  and 
give  him  a  thorough  rest.  Speaking  about 
rules  for  training  reminds  me  of  what  hap- 
pened to  a  friend  of  mine,  a  member  of  our 
bar,  some  years  ago.  One  day,  having  just 
been  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  met  with  a  per- 
plexing problem  of  legal  practice.  He  nat- 
urally took  down  the  book,  written  by  the  man 
who  had  lectured  to  him  on  that  particular 
branch  of  the  law,  and  began  diligently  to 
search  for  the  solution.  After  several  days 
of  the  most  careful  perusal  of  said  volume, 
he  finally  wandered  over  to  the  office  of  his 
former  professor,  and  greeted  him  with  this 
remark :  "Mr.  P.,  there  is  a  point  in  practice 
which  I  cannot  find  in  your  book."  The  re- 
ply was  prompt  and  accompanied  with  a  smile, 


[175] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

"My  dear  man,  that  is  more  than  likely ;  if  I 
had  put  everything  I  know  in  that  book,  I 
would  not  have  had  the  pleasure  of  your  visit." 
The  desired  information  was  imparted  to  my 
friend  who  later  divided  his  fee  with  his 
former  instructor.  So  it  is  with  the  expert 
coach  or  trainer ;  he  is  not  going  to  put  all  of 
his  tricks  on  paper;  and  further,  if  he  really 
wanted  to,  he  could  not  give  you  the  proper 
treatment  for  each  case.  He  must  see  the 
subject  before  making  a  diagnosis. 

What  the  men  need  is  good  healthy  food, 
and  then  sleep.  Boarding  house  hash,  and  all 
it  signifies  will  not  build  up  a  man  to  stand 
good  physical  exertion.  I  repeat  sleep,  and 
plenty  of  it.  This  does  not  mean  sleep  which 
begins  at  2  A.  M.  and  runs  through  until 
midday;  but  rather  of  the  kind  which  tunes 
well  with  the  proverb  "Early  to  bed  and 
early  to  rise,  makes  a  man  healthy,  wealthy 
and  wise."  Make  your  chaps  retire  early, 
and  let  them  sleep  as  long  as  they  sleep  sound- 

[176] 


Eighth   Letter 


ly,  or  are  called  out  for  lectures;  but  do  not 
let  them  roll  around  in  bed  when  they  have 
finished  sleeping.. 

It  is  interesting  to  follow  an  experienced 

coach  through  the  season  with  his  team,  and 
see  how  he  gets  them  in  the  proper  mental 
attitude.  All  coaches  have  different  ways  in 
which  they  work  out  the  result,  but  the  under- 
lying principle  is  the  same.  Nearly  all  colleges 
have  a  particular  game  which  they  consider 
the  most  important  of  the  season.  The  team 
must  reach  the  high-water  mark  on  that  par- 
ticular day.  If  an  aggregation  has  been  win- 
ning its  largest  games  for  several  years  in 
succession,  it  is  bound  to  suffer  from  a  swelled 
head  which  must  be  promptly  deflated.  You 
may  have  the  best  lot  of  men,  who  are  abso- 
lutely devoid  of  all  conceit,  and  yet  somehow, 
there  seems  to  be  a  thirty-fifth  sense  which 
refuses  to  let  them  do  their  best  if  they  have 
won  too  often.  So  the  losses  out  of  the  squad 
by  reason  of  graduation  are  harped  upon,  and 

[177] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

^.agnified  a  hundred  fold  by  the  coach.  The 
season  after  a  man  has  left  college,  he  sudden- 
ly finds  out  that  he  was  a  wonder,  or  the 
greatest  utility  man  of  his  day.  Then  as  the 
team  continues  its  winning  of  games,  some  of 
the  best  men  suddenly  strain  tendons,  or  have 
a  thousand  and  one  ailments  which  nobody 
ever  heard  of  but  a  coach  who  has  been  at  the 
business  a  long  while.  That  is  the  reason 
that  so  many  of  the  "sure  enough"  cripples 
always  appear  at  the  crucial  minute  and  make 
phenomenal  plays. 

Then  again,  while  the  team  is  being  scared 
to  death  so  as  to  give  them  the  "never-die- 
spirit",  the  man  most  needed  is  being  kept  out 
of  the  scrimmage  so  as  to  store  up  energy. 
The  more  he  begs  to  get  in  the  game,  Dick, 
the  more  h^  is  kept  out  for  a  while;  so  that 
when  he  breaks  loose,  you  can't  hold  him. 
Last  fall  I  saw  a  man,  who  had  just  recov- 
ered from  water  on  the  knee,  kept  on  the  side 
lines  for  two  full  weeks,  so  as  to  have  him  in 

[  178  ] 


Eighth   Letter 


proper  shape  for  the  big  game.  He  was 
ready  to  go  into  two  games  before  the  big 
day;  but  the  team  could  score  without  him, 
hence  he  had  to  watch  the  play  from  the 
side  lines.  He  knew  the  game,  ran  through  a 
few  signals  in  practice  and  never  got  into  a 
scrimmage-  The  coach  knew  that  one  bad 
whack  on  that  knee  would  mean  a  two-weeks 
lay  up.  \yhen  the  game  of  the  season  got 
under  way,  he  was  all  over  the  field,  and  in 
every  play.  And  what  was  even  better,  all 
the  athjer  men  caught  his  spirit. 

A  team  should  never  be  so  discouraged  by 
its  coach  as  to  get  the  impression  that  it  is 
going  to  lose.  The  properly  balanced  atti- 
tude of  mijnd  of  the  oven  5,l;\9,vJ'<<i  be  ,that  they 
are  going  to  win ;  but  that  it  will  take  all  they 
have  in  their  make-up  to  pull  through.  A 
team  must  go  on  the  field  full  of  confidence, 
but  ready  to  dp  their  "darndest",  right  from 
the  start. 

if  a  team  goes  up  against  an  acknowledged 

1 1'^9  ] 


Are    You   Going   to   College 

superior  aggregation,  you  will  find  the  coach 
fortified  with  all  kinds  of  rumors  from  friends 
who  have  seen  the  other  team  play,  to  the 
effect  that  they  are  overtrained,  or  that  their 
former  opponents  have  had  a  long  disability 
list.  The  acknowledged  weaker  team  has  ev- 
erything to  gain,  and  nothing  to  lose;  hence 
when  they  do  manage  to  make  an  impression 
on  the  big  men,  the  chances  are  that  they  will 
play  a  better  game  than  they  know  how.  My 
observation  is  that  a  comparatively  weak  team 
will  often  play  an  exceptional  game,  just  once 
in  a  season. 

Confidence  displayed  by  a  team,  when  it 
goes  out  on  the  field  for  a  game,  has  a  peculiar 
effect  on  its  opponents.  It  is,  therefore,  well 
to  tell  your  boys  to  enter  the  arena  with  a 
dash.  Rapid  display  of  energy,  gives  the  aud- 
ience and  their  adversaries,  the  impression 
that  Hastings*  squad  really  expects  to  win. 

Another  wise  precaution,  Dick,  is  to  in- 
struct your  men  never  to  take  any   advice 

[180] 


Eighth    Letter 


from  anybody,  except  the  coaches.     You  will 
find  that  there  are  always  plenty  of  old  grads 
on  the  side  lines  at  a  game,  who  are  ready 
with  hints  on  how  to  do  it.     These  men  have 
the  best  of  intentions,  but  are  either  not  up 
with  the  modern  style  of  play,  or  they  are  not 
acquainted  with  the  capabilities  of  the  differ- 
ent players.   You  have  your  regular  coach  or 
staff  of  coaches,  hold  them  responsible  for 
your  victory!     The  idea  is  not  to  drive  the 
old  grads  away,  and  cause  them  to  lose  their 
interest  in  the  team ;  but  the  instructions  must 
go  through  the  proper  channels.     I  know  how 
much  mischief  can  be  done  by  advice  to  try 
this  play  or  that,  when  a  player  has  not  tried 
it  in  practice.     When  I  was  at  prep  school,  1 
lost  a  game  once  by  a  friendly  hint,  at  the 
eleventh  hour.     It  was  this  way !     I  was  play- 
ing on  a  Junior  Hockey  team,  and  just  before 
I  went  on  the  ice  for  the  game,  I  had  a  talk 
with,   what  was  considered,   the  best  goal- 
keeper playing  in  a  senior  league  in  that  vie- 
[181] 


Are    You   G oing   to    College 

inity.  He  showed  me  how  he  used  his  stick 
flat  on  the  ice  during  scrimmages  in  front  of 
goal.  It  looked  good  to  me,  especially  since 
I  knew  he  was  using  it  with  great  success. 
Well,  to  make  a  painful  story  short,  I,  like 
the  "green  horn"  that  I  was,  started  to  use 
the  play  in  that  game.  The  result  was  a  game 
by  two  goals  for  bur  opponents,  which  they 
would  never  have  scored  if  I  had  stuck  to  my 
schooling.  Never,  Dick,  try  to  teach  your 
(men  a  radically  new  thing  in  the  last  couple 
of  practices.  Let  well  enough  alone.  Finish 
up  by  getting  them  in  the  best  physical  and 
mental  shape. 

After  the  team  has  taken  the  field,  Richard 
no  man,  except  the  captain  of  your  team, 
ought  to  confer  with  the  captain  of  the  oppos- 
ing forces,  or  with  the  imipirie  or  referee. 
This  may  seem  elementary  to  you  youngster, 
but  nothing  looks  worse  than  to  see  a  whole 
team  crowding  around  a  referee  when  he 
makes  a  "bum"  decision.     Thie  captain,  if  he 

[  182  ] 


Eighth   Letter 


is  of  the  proper  sort,  can  do  more  with  the 
"ump",  than  a  whole  bunch  doing  the  war 
dance.  The  rest  of  the  boys  ought  to  be  get- 
ting together  saving  their  wind,  and  figuring 
out  the  weak  spots  in  the  other  team.  This 
is  discipline,  without  which  you  can  have  no 
respectful  and  respected  athletic  machine. 

''Getting  the  men  on  edge."  This  phrase 
you  may  have  heard,  but  do  you  really  know 
what  it  means?  It  is  simply  another  charac- 
teristic way  of  saying  "Getting  the  players 
keyed  to  the  highest  pitch,"  so  that  they  will 
play  their  best.  To  do  this  properly,  takes 
the  consummate  skill  of  an  expert.  Athletes, 
like  good  actors,  are  under  a  nervous  strain 
before  they  go  on  for  their  parts.  Now,  Dick, 
if  this  nervous  tension  comes  on  too  soon  in 
athletics,  then  energy  is  used  up  before  it 
is  needed.  To  avoid  this,  a  grad  coach 
or  trainer  will  keep  the  minds  of  his  men  off 
the  game,  until  about  an  hour  and  a  half  be- 
fore the  whistle  blows.  There  are  all  kinds  of 
[  183  ] 


Are    You    G oing   to    College 

tricks  to  do  this;  but  the  first  thing  to  do  is 
not  to  let  your  men  discuss  the  game.  Then 
at  the  proper  time,  focus  the  full  attention  of 
your  team  directly  on  the  contest,  and  rub  it 
in  by  casual  remarks  well  selected.  Finally, 
then,  just  before  the  men  are  sent  on  the  field 
to  do  or  die,  a  good  old-time  *'Rah!  Rah!" 
speech  about  college  spirit,  your  Alma  Mater 
and  the  disgrace  of  losing,  will  put  them  on 
edge,  provided  they  have  not  been  over- 
worked. 

There,  Dick  Dawson,  you  have  the  funda- 
mentals of  handling  a  team  in  one  short  letter. 
It  may  not  all  be  in  logical  order,  but  it's 
there.  After  you  have  read  to  your  satis- 
faction, then  put  it  away.  Where?  well, — 
where  you  keep  those  of  your  best  girl,  and 
when  you  clean  out  your  furniture  in  your 
senior  year,  before  turning  the  same  over  to 
your  successor  in  dormitory,  just  peruse  this 
letter  once  more,  and  write  me  whether  I  have 
shot  well,  or  missed  the  target  entirely. 

[184] 


Eighth   Letter 


That  lets  me  out  for  tonight,  but  I  was  just 
wondering  what  you  are  going  to  pick  out 
next  time  for  me  to  solve, — I  confess  I  do  not 
know,  as  I  have  in  my  opinion  touched  on 
about  all  the  trials  and  tribulations  of  a  Fresh- 
man- You  can't  hurt  my  feelings,  so  let's 
have  it. 

When  you  write  home,  please   enclose  a 
good  sprinkling  of  my  regards. 
Yours  sincerely, 

Harold  James. 

P.  S.     How  is  your  allowance  holding  out? 


[185] 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN     INITIAL     FINE     OF     25    CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


FEB  13  IS 


Bv^, 


tii. 


n^i^ 


1 


r^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  I^IBRARY 


■""'-  '■■'■■■-■> '•"•'ii 


